• Panning
• Map Type
• Zoom In / Out
• Station Status
• Station Information
  • Tooltip
  • Report Dialog
  • Resetting Map
• Cookies
• Reports

Center the map on the location you wish to make a report inquiry. To do this place cursor (hand) at the point-of-interest and double click – the map will move to center that location. You may also place the cursor over the map, then click the left mouse button and drag it in the desired direction you want you want to go. The direction arrows, located in the top left corner of the map, can be used for the same purpose. The overview map in the bottom right corner provides a “zoomed out” method of panning by selecting the blue box in the center. Left click the mouse over the blue box, drag it to the desired location, then release the mouse button.

The buttons on the top right corner change the type of map shown.

To zoom in and out of map, left click the mouse button over the map slider on the left side of the map and move mouse up to zoom in or move down to zoom out. Likewise, select the plus sign at the top of the slide bar to zoom in or click on the minus sign at the bottom to zoom out.

If you are using a mouse with a wheel scroll button, you may use it to zoom in and out. Simply position the mouse over the portion of the map you would like zoomed, and then scroll the button up to zoom in, and down to zoom out.

Once the map has zoomed in sufficiently, icons (orange shaped balloons) will appear on the map, representing stations where weather data has been collected. By default, only active stations (new data within the last year) are shown.

To view inactive stations along with active stations, click on the “Show inactive stations” checkbox above the map. Inactive stations (red shaped balloons) will appear with the active stations.

Tooltip. A brief description or tooltip about a station will appear when the cursor is placed over a specific station. Information contained within the tooltip includes the station ID, name, and period that the station has been active.

Report Dialog. Clicking on a station icon will open the report selection dialog. To close, click on the close button in the upper right corner of the dialog. Information in this dialog includes station id, name, and the station’s period of record along with several radio buttons for choosing a report type. Options for the report type include monthly report, period of record, precipitation report, and mean (average) temperature report. Clicking on any of these radio buttons will produce options for that type of report. These options will ultimately generate a monthly report. Three of the four report types produce only one available option, which is type of units (English and SI units). Monthly reports, on the other hand, require the user to choose the year and month desired from the drop-down boxes. Once these options are selected, the user should click on the “Get Report” button to display the desired report.

Resetting Map. Sometimes the overview map in the bottom left corner can malfunction when a user tries to drag over to a location outside the current view. When these errors occur, the map attempts to load a false location (i.e. 100000 N 1000000 W) and a valid map can no longer be found. To fix this, click on the reset link directly below the map. This link will restore the map to its default value.

Cookies help keep track of user information, returning the user to the same location and settings after viewing a report.

The cookie collects the following information:

• Status of the "Show inactive stations" checkbox
• Current map location and zoom level
• Current map type (map, satellite, hybrid)
• Month and year selected for a "Monthly" report.

Users can export data through reports generated from the Google Maps interface. These exported data are CSV (comma separated values) files. When users select the “Save” button (located at the top of the report page), a Save dialog will appear. This dialog will be saved to a location that the user chooses. The default filename is {stationID}_{report type}.csv (i.e. 425186_monthly.csv).

In the same location as the "Save" button is a link to information about how to save the reports as a PDF file.