# Dashboard Weather widget tip for Canucks



## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

I noticed that my weather widget was consistently wrong compared with the temperatures recorded by WeatherPop. This is because I had the widget set to "Toronto" but the data was actually from Toronto, Ohio. The back of the widget allows you to set City, State or Zip Code but if you insert "Ontario" you get info from AccuWeather from Ontario, NY. Typing in Toronto, ON just gives you Toronto, OH.

There is a way to set this properly. Type in the name of your city, then Canada and hit return. E.g. Toronto, Canada. The widget does a look-up and should fill with Toronto, Canada(ON). Voila - accurate (well, as accurate as weather prediction ever is) information..... 

Note, that clicking on the city name (white type) on the widget will open the AccuWeather website. However, this doesn't work properly for Canadian cities (and is another way to tell if the widget is reporting the right city) and you have to click on the Canada link on the website.


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## trump (Dec 7, 2004)

I noticed how wrong it was a little while ago...but then I noticed I could set it to Markham so I forgot about the issue. Nice to know though


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Yeah.. keep your eye on it though.. for some reason. I've noticed that it changes.. well once.. and not since. But still.. something to watch out for


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## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

Someone should make a widget using the stats on Weather.ca

I have a taskbar program that shows me the weather (on my PC) from weather.ca, and it's always been accurate (well, it's the weather, kinda hard to say) ever since I've used it.


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Hey, thanks for the tip, UTBJW. I had tried many times to make that widget recognize my city (Longueuil, on the south shore of Montreal) but it never worked. I always found that weird because if you go to the Accuweather site, you can get weather for Longueuil. I just tried your tip, putting in Longueuil, Canada, and sure enough, there it is. Cool! (well, quite warm today, actually).

MacS


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

Actually, I realised that if you put in the city name and then type return, it says "validating" then a pulldown menu appears with the various global occurences of that city. You can then select from that list. However, the pulldown menu takes a few seconds to form and I think that, as a consequence, many people don't see it (I didn't).


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## MacDaddy (Jul 16, 2001)

I noticed this when I put in Calgary and it didnt notice what it was!
I tried Calgary, AB, still didn't work, had to do Calgary, Alberta!


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## comprehab (May 28, 2005)

I just fixed mine today, it was giving me waterloo NY, i re typed waterloo then used the scrolling trackpad and i got a pull down menu with every waterloo that existed and i selected Waterloo ON, and now i get accurate weather. YAY


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

used to be jwoodget said:


> Actually, I realised that if you put in the city name and then type return, it says "validating" then a pulldown menu appears with the various global occurences of that city. You can then select from that list. However, the pulldown menu takes a few seconds to form and I think that, as a consequence, many people don't see it (I didn't).


I think something must have changed at Accuweather. I had tried this on several occasions with "Longueuil" previously and come up with nothing. But now, I get three hits (all in Quebec! WTF?). Well, at least I can get the weather for my city now, though the current temp and conditions show up as "NaN", whatever that is.

MacS


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## mgl (Feb 14, 2004)

NaN = Not a Number

in other words, a badly written javascript parser


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## NewGuy (Jun 23, 2005)

Be careful changing the location in the widget. I had it working for a few weeks but when I changed it to Vancouver (from Calgary) and back again it won't recognize Calgary anymore. Ive tried a number of different syntaxes, including the one mentioned above and it doesn't work. I just get a blank widget. No data comes through and no pick list on the back.
If anyone else has had this and figured a way around it, i'd love to know.


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## NewGuy (Jun 23, 2005)

Hey - it's me again.
I saw in the other post that you can revive the frozen weather widget by inserting Cupertino first, letting it update, then switch to Calgary. Works now.
Till next time...


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## Lisa G (Jun 19, 2007)

used to be jwoodget said:


> I noticed that my weather widget was consistently wrong compared with the temperatures recorded by WeatherPop. This is because I had the widget set to "Toronto" but the data was actually from Toronto, Ohio. The back of the widget allows you to set City, State or Zip Code but if you insert "Ontario" you get info from AccuWeather from Ontario, NY. Typing in Toronto, ON just gives you Toronto, OH.
> 
> There is a way to set this properly. Type in the name of your city, then Canada and hit return. E.g. Toronto, Canada. The widget does a look-up and should fill with Toronto, Canada(ON). Voila - accurate (well, as accurate as weather prediction ever is) information.....
> 
> Note, that clicking on the city name (white type) on the widget will open the AccuWeather website. However, this doesn't work properly for Canadian cities (and is another way to tell if the widget is reporting the right city) and you have to click on the Canada link on the website.


Thank Youuuuuuu! Now it works:clap:


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## Lisa G (Jun 19, 2007)

used to be jwoodget said:


> I noticed that my weather widget was consistently wrong compared with the temperatures recorded by WeatherPop. This is because I had the widget set to "Toronto" but the data was actually from Toronto, Ohio. The back of the widget allows you to set City, State or Zip Code but if you insert "Ontario" you get info from AccuWeather from Ontario, NY. Typing in Toronto, ON just gives you Toronto, OH.
> 
> There is a way to set this properly. Type in the name of your city, then Canada and hit return. E.g. Toronto, Canada. The widget does a look-up and should fill with Toronto, Canada(ON). Voila - accurate (well, as accurate as weather prediction ever is) information.....
> 
> Note, that clicking on the city name (white type) on the widget will open the AccuWeather website. However, this doesn't work properly for Canadian cities (and is another way to tell if the widget is reporting the right city) and you have to click on the Canada link on the website.


Thank Youuuuuuu! Now it works:clap:


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## harzack86 (Jan 30, 2005)

I'm using the widget from the weather network instead. I find it better for Canada 

The Weather Network - Weather Centre - Desktop


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## madhatress (Jul 22, 2007)

Damn! I knew there was something fishy about the weather, but I thought it was just the site.

Now I know. And knowing is half the battle....


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## yeeeha (Feb 16, 2007)

harzack86 said:


> I'm using the widget from the weather network instead. I find it better for Canada
> 
> The Weather Network - Weather Centre - Desktop


Notice that the other Weather Network widgets have more info than the Mac widget 

For the hard core weather fans, there is the Aviation Weather widget that you can set it to Canadian airports. The widget grabs the weather data from the U.S. National Weather Service, which carries the same weather data as Nav Canada.


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## hUssain (Aug 10, 2007)

I had the problem of Ottawa being in the US too, I wrote Ottawa, Canada, and it pulled the data from canada, it says Ottawa, Canada(Ontario)


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## garf1108 (May 30, 2006)

The weather network also has a widget for Canadian places

Garf


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

Meh... I realized this soon after trying to use it. It still offers inaccurate weather information. Not only that, but you can actually watch it change the 'forecast' for the current day as the day progresses.... it's like it's saying, "umm.. it's gonna be 20C...... no wait... 21C and raining"... (sunny outside).... "oh wait... I mean 24C and mostly cloudy".... then late at night, the forecast for the day is finally accurate, once it's had a chance to check what the daytime high was. Pathetic.

I use 'Weather Underground' now and so far it's been MUCH more accurate.


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## Carl (Jun 7, 2003)

I use the widget from the Weather Network Canada and the radar widget from the Weather Channel USA. The AccuWeather widget gives different readings for Canadian cities for some reason.
In the end, they all suck. The weather hasn't been right for a long time.
They always say its going to rain, and we had the worst drought ever. We should make a widget that just makes a guess, and that would be as accurate.

I can't believe they have a channel. Every time I turn it on they are giving a pollen report or telling me how snowflakes are made. Sort of a joke, paid for by Essilor lens ads.


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## Lisa G (Jun 19, 2007)

Thanks guys! I didn't know we had other weather widget choices  I'm a fairly new mac user (July 2007) and I love the mac experience and I love this Canadian site as well. I don't get the opportunity to post very often but I've learned a lot just by reading the board.  

BTW a big hey to Ottawaman and Vexel if you're around!


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## gordguide (Jan 13, 2001)

I just Use WeatherDock. Sometimes a widget is not the best answer. Check it out if you need a good forecast and lots of data (I need to know the pressure trends, wind speeds, and wind directions, for example, far more than I need to know the temperature).

But, for those of you that insist, any widget that uses weather.com for it's data should be fine for almost anyone worldwide, and in particular in Canada.

Although I don't know this for a fact, I do know that I get current and forecast reports from weather.com for one particular weather station, and this station reports directly to Environment Canada only, so I suspect weather.com has an agreement to access data from Environment Canada. But, I also suspect they amalgamate data from a number of sources, the forecast is usually much better than Environment Canada's alone.

I'll leave it to those of you who actually use Dashboard to dig up a widget that uses weather.com data. Post it here when you do.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

If you go here:

http://www.fondantfancies.com/blog/3001239/

and download the "Dash Clipping" widget, then enter the url of your home town forecast from weather.com, you have your very own weather.com widget.


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## bishopandarlo (Mar 22, 2006)

Something I really don't like about The Weather Network's widget is... it doesn't show the weather for today, but instead Wednesday, Thursday, etc. That's why I use AccuWeather instead.


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## brashley46 (Nov 5, 2008)

There's a Canada Weather Office widget available now ... it just works.


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## Paddy (Jul 13, 2004)

You can download it here:

Apple - Downloads - Dashboard Widgets - Canadian Weather Forecast


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## ScanMan (Sep 11, 2007)

Best thing going.

Meteorologist - a weather program for Mac OS X


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## brashley46 (Nov 5, 2008)

ScanMan said:


> Best thing going.
> 
> Meteorologist - a weather program for Mac OS X


I have that too, but the wrongness of the weather in the Dashboard weather widget was annoying.


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