Light to moderate snow will continue into Saturday over the Great Lakes, Central Appalachians, and Northeast. This weekend into next week, a series of atmospheric rivers will bring gusty winds, periods of heavy rain, and mountain snow to northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Colder temperatures are in store for the weekend from the Great Lakes to East Coast. Read More >
**REMINDER: The Spot Forecast Page is for official use only under the governing Spot Forecast policy.**
The Spot Forecast page recently underwent a major upgrade and transition to a new IT infrastructure as its previous IT infrastructure fell out of date. While this upgrade will eventually improve the security, reliability, and stability of the page, the initial transition has created a series of unforeseen challenges. We are actively working to identify and address these technical issues as quickly as possible to restore Spot’s original functionality. On this page, you will find a list of known issues, best practices for submitting Spot Forecast Requests, training materials for the new page, and an archive of recent updates for Spot users. Check back regularly for more updates as we continue to improve the page!
To ensure continued access to the new Spot Page, please bookmark the new URL: https://spot.weather.gov/.
Information about the new page can be found here. Here are the slides and Q&A from our partner intro webinar.
(11/14) Allow Negative Observation Values: Will now allow the elevation to be negative for observations that are submitted in cases where necessary.
(11/14) Email Sent List: Emails sent to the user requested emails will now also CC office emails.
(10/31) Printining Alignment: Print function will now align the text correctly.
(10/31) LAT/LON Convention: LAT/LON will follow convention on the Monitor page as well.
(10/16) Map Projection: Alaska and CONUS map distortion is fixed.
(10/16) Future Forecast Prep Continued: Enhance Spot Automation for multiple future forecast handling. Ensure old future forecasts are not processed and new ones are not processed until the current request number is fulfilled.
(10/16) Update Numbering: Fixed a problem for NWS staff where the request number would increment when it should not, such as feedback or new observations being submitted.
(10/16) Disclaimer for Future Forecast: Adding additional text disclaimer to the future forecast section about usage
(10/16) Disclaimer and Corrected Link: Corrected link to Fire Weather Directive for Spot and disclaimer to those submitting to ensure they are a valid user
(10/16) Request Reasoning: Fixed the request reasoning for some incidents.
(10/16) Edit Button: Fixed edit button nomenclature to be correct in all scenarios
(10/16) Deliver As Soon As Possible: Fixed a bug where submitted and deliver time were different when user selected “Deliver as soon as possible”
(9/16) Decimal Points: Decimal points in request elements are now accepted.
(9/16) Multiple Email Addresses: The system accepts multiple email addresses and sends forecasts to all addresses entered.
(9/16) Future Forecast Prep: This is an automation that checks for a posted forecast before processing future forecast requests and properly sets the time. This is one of several fixes needed to implement the future forecast capability properly.
(9/16) Proper Incrementing after Feedback or New Obs Submitted: Fixes an improper lack of incrementing for NWS staff after feedback or new observations are submitted.
(9/5) Zeroing of LAT/LON: The system disallows the zeroing out of LAT and/or LON.
(9/5) Zoom Filter: The Spot Monitor table filters to the zoom level of the map.
(9/5) Stale Emails: The application no longer sends invalid emails.
(9/5) Auto Archiving: Forecasts automatically archive after 7 days of no activity.
(9/5) Edit Portal Text: Edit page nomenclature is now correct.
(9/5) Feedback Link Fix: The feedback link for users has been fixed.
(9/3) Feedback Error: Feedback can now be successfully submitted.
(9/3) Timezone Drop Down: A drop down menu is available to select the appropriate time zones for offices that service multiple time zones.
(9/3) Failed Submission Fix: If a forecast request or forecast edit submission fails, it keeps the user on the page and retains all entered data, allowing the user to fix the specific issue and proceed with submission.
(9/3) Pan Across Dateline: Allows the user to pan and select points across the dateline.
(9/3) Remove HYSPLIT Plume: The HYSPLIT plume option has been removed from the application.
(8/23) Decimal Degrees Input: Plot coordinates button accurately ingests decimal degrees inputs.
(8/23) LAT/LON Convention: LAT/LON is now listed with LAT first on the request page.
(8/23) Request Status and Forecast Display: Spot requests will stay in pending status until a completed forecast is submitted. The display page will show 'No Forecast Available' until a forecast is provided. If multiple forecasts are completed for the request, only the newest forecast will be displayed.
(8/23) Remove Request Forecast Update: The Request Forecast Update button has been removed. To request an update use the edit link.
(8/23) Required Fields on Mobile Devices: The stars indicating required input fields will now accurately display on mobile devices.
(8/23) Edit Submit Button: The edit link now takes a requestor to a page to edit a request. The button at the bottom is changed from “Edit Request” to “Submit Request Edit.”
(8/19) Calendar Fix: Future calendar months and times are always available.
(8/19) Spot Email: The email from the Spot application to users when a new Spot request is submitted will include links to edit the request, request a forecast update, and provide observations.
(8/19) Future Forecast Time: The Future Forecast will only schedule if both a date and time are selected.
(8/19) Improve Query of Requests: Improve the functionality of querying requests on the monitor page.
(8/19) State Assignment: Assign the accurate state to the Spot request based on incident location selected.
(8/19) 'Submitted At' Time Fix: The ‘submitted at’ accurately reflects the time the Spot request was submitted in the local time zone.
(8/15) Observation Improvements: No longer accept duplicate submissions of the same observation. Only require the mandatory fields as opposed to all fields that were sometimes being required. Also, some allowable value thresholds created.
(8/15) Marker plotting on Request Page: If a user clicks the map on the request page more than once previous markers will be removed.
(8/15) Required Elements Highlighting: All required elements will now be highlighted in red highlighting.
(8/9) Update numbering: Spot request version numbering updates correctly, including no update in numbering when an observation is recorded, feedback is submitted, users edit without a forecast currently posted, and more. This should reduce the number of unnecessary AWIPS alerts about Spots. Performance of entering observations still needs improvement and ensuring correct Monitor status is correct.
(8/9) Longitude west of dateline: Areas to the west of the Dateline now have the correct longitude.
(8/9) Legend definitions: Legend definitions for type of request added below monitor map.
(8/9) Time zone display: Time Zones display correctly in the Monitor table. Previously some time zones were truncated.
(8/9) Guam requests on Monitor: Spot requests are now showing on the map and monitor for Guam. Navigating the map for Guam still needs improvement.
(8/9) Performance: Improvements to Monitor page performance.
(8/6) Zero acre fix: Allow for zero acres.
(8/1) Help banner: Insert a help banner at the top of the Spot page.
(7/30) Time populating error: Times for tomorrow may not populate correctly for the next morning after 0 UTC.
(7/30) STQ assignment: Requests will now go to the correct office when in the border areas of each office area of responsibility and also location is now required to be set before submitting.
(7/30) Email editing issue: Editing via email links will retain forecast times.
(7/17) Notification fixes: Fixed multiple notifications being sent for a single request.
(7/17) AK and Great Lakes fix: Correctly routes Alaska and Great Lakes requests to the correct site ID.
(7/17) Auto archive: Auto archives incidents that have no activity for 7 days.
Duplicate Spots prevented: Previously users could hit the submit button twice and duplicate a request. This fix prevents this from happening.
Stop updates with old request times: This will validate the time inputted by the user to prevent the submitter from submitting a request with old request times on additional requests for a SPOT.
Notification reminder time added: Going back to old Spot site settings with regard to notification times for NWS staff.
STQs sent based on notification time settings: Going back to old Spot site settings with regard to notification time for NWS staff.
Future Forecast feature does not work correctly.
Ability to embed Spot in another site.
Submit time not correct after a request is archived.
Relative Humidity: Relative humidity must be manually input into observations. The Spot request page will not calculate RH automatically based on other inputs (i.e. if the requestor enters Temperature and Dewpoint in an observation, RH will NOT be calculated automatically).
Please contact the local office when wanted to schedule future forecasts.
Please be as specific as possible when requesting a SPOT.
Please change the default location when making a SPOT request.
If there are any issues with your SPOT request or receipt please find your local office using the map on weather.gov and give the office a call.
When first arriving at https://spot.weather.gov/ you will see the SPOT Monitor. For more information on navigating the page, watch the How to Use the Spot Monitor Page video above.
To submit a request click on New Request. Watch the “How to Submit a Spot Forecast” Video to learn more.
To see only requests for a certain area use a query like https://spot.weather.gov/?lon=-108.6061&lat=45.6843&zoom=9
You can turn on watches and warnings by clicking on Markers and then Watches and Warnings.
Feedback is welcome at nws.webfeedback@noaa.gov
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New Spot Page Training Videos How to use the Spot Monitor Page: SpotMonitorPage.mp4 How to submit a Spot Forecast: SpotRequestANewSpot.mp4
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Backup Google Form Spot Request Training* *Only used for backup if the Spot Forecast Page is not functioning. Please check with your supporting forecast office to confirm support of this feature. To fill out the Google Form as a Spot Forecast request backup option, watch the video below. To find your local weather forecast office you can click on the map at https://www.weather.gov/ nearest your location. It will then provide you with the office servicing that area. How to use the Google Form Request Page: SpotGoogleFormTrainingVideo.mp4 |
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