Site Updates
December 9th, 2024
Starting on March 1st, 2025, Google is decreasing the amount of free usage available for dynamic maps. (Platform Pricing & API Costs - Google Maps Platform) Rather than 28,500 map loads per month free, they will now only allow 10,000 free. That extra 18,500 map loads would cost $129.50. Because I don't want to incur costs, it is likely that we will no longer have Google model plots or center fix data available on our web pages. It will still be downloadable to be viewed in Google Earth. While it is possible we might leave the plots since they would still work, only with watermarks obscuring the maps in great part, we likely won't. We use the same API key as HurricaneCity, where we have the systems as a backup, so we would need to have a separate one if we did that. Because Google requires credit card information, and I don't want to have to keep up with changing quotas in two accounts to avoid charges, I will likely just remove them from all of Tropical Globe's sites. You can set a daily usage quota for usage so that your account is not charged. You can't set it for the month, only for the day. So to avoid being charged, I would have to set it at 322 map loads per day. (10,000 / 31) During a storm, it can exceed 2,000. I have to adjust it at times to save some usage for later in the month sometimes, and that was then I had 28,500. While occasionally I can apply for free credits as a crisis responder, I haven't always been approved for that. That is temporary, lasting two months usually. I can't rely on that, and working with a quota when I had it at 919 (28,500 / 31) was already pain. I was threatened by hurricanes this year and was without power for three days. I can't worry about having to change the quota back if I have it set higher temporarily for a storm and possibly be charged hundreds of dollars.
Eventually, I'm going to switch to a new mapping service and be done with Google's for good. (other than Google Earth, but it wouldn't surprise me if they end that program eventually or start charging people) Hopefully by 2026 I'll have updated the model system to have a different provider.
Eventually, I'm going to switch to a new mapping service and be done with Google's for good. (other than Google Earth, but it wouldn't surprise me if they end that program eventually or start charging people) Hopefully by 2026 I'll have updated the model system to have a different provider.
July 10th, 2024
All of our sites have now been moved to a new server. Everything now appears to be working.
July 9th, 2024
Our site is scheduled to be moved to a new server today. Our hosting company, Websitesource, is moving us to a more modern hosting environment. Once that happens we will need to upgrade our DNS at Cloudflare, our domain registrar. Expect outages for up to a day or two when the switch occurs.
Before the move we deleted 95% of our site's content so that our hosting company had to move less. (around 17,000 files to move rather than around 700,000) Data before 2024 is currently not available in the recon and model systems. I wanted to recreate all the data so there was no sense in having them move it all. I downloaded all the storm data from the NHC's ATCF archive and will update that data for all storms other than invests. That requires recreating all the data offline and then uploading it back. I'm in the process of creating the model data offline to add back once the server move is complete. It will take time to update everything.
Before the move we deleted 95% of our site's content so that our hosting company had to move less. (around 17,000 files to move rather than around 700,000) Data before 2024 is currently not available in the recon and model systems. I wanted to recreate all the data so there was no sense in having them move it all. I downloaded all the storm data from the NHC's ATCF archive and will update that data for all storms other than invests. That requires recreating all the data offline and then uploading it back. I'm in the process of creating the model data offline to add back once the server move is complete. It will take time to update everything.
July 8th, 2024
To make our site move easier on our hosting company, all recon and model data before this year has been deleted. Within a few weeks, this data will be added back.
July 6th, 2024
Our site will likely be migrating to a new server on Tuesday, July 9th. Our hosting company will move our site to a new server with an upgraded hosting platform. I have scheduled it after Beryl makes landfall to minimize the disruption. Expect for some things to not be available.
This is a long needed upgrade and is at the same cost as I am paying now. I might, to make things easier for my hosting company, delete a lot of the older model and recon data so they don't have to move it. Then I will upload it myself again. We'll see. I have backed up 22.4 gigabytes of data, for a total of 699,629 files that make up the site. (the model and recon systems create a lot of files!)
I have a plan to reduce the number of files the model system generates. Rather than generate a Google Earth file for model swaths, at some point in the future it will be created on demand client side. This is going to take a long time to do however as I need to make a lot of other changes to the model system. It could be a year or more before I upgrade the model system with that and other changes. (such as to be mobile friendly) The model swath files are taking up a lot of space due to having to create the circle piece for every position and having twice as many depending on if the swaths are filled or not. An on demand option might allow you to choose whether you want them filled when you download it. Or maybe you could still generate both in the same file. I'll have to see how much memory that takes client side to do.
In the past few days I have made some updates to the radar database, including the ability to choose the radar site circle size. I also plan to allow you to change the color in the future so that depending on the basemap you use you can see the dots better. Eventually I will also allow changing the color for radar ranges.
This is a long needed upgrade and is at the same cost as I am paying now. I might, to make things easier for my hosting company, delete a lot of the older model and recon data so they don't have to move it. Then I will upload it myself again. We'll see. I have backed up 22.4 gigabytes of data, for a total of 699,629 files that make up the site. (the model and recon systems create a lot of files!)
I have a plan to reduce the number of files the model system generates. Rather than generate a Google Earth file for model swaths, at some point in the future it will be created on demand client side. This is going to take a long time to do however as I need to make a lot of other changes to the model system. It could be a year or more before I upgrade the model system with that and other changes. (such as to be mobile friendly) The model swath files are taking up a lot of space due to having to create the circle piece for every position and having twice as many depending on if the swaths are filled or not. An on demand option might allow you to choose whether you want them filled when you download it. Or maybe you could still generate both in the same file. I'll have to see how much memory that takes client side to do.
In the past few days I have made some updates to the radar database, including the ability to choose the radar site circle size. I also plan to allow you to change the color in the future so that depending on the basemap you use you can see the dots better. Eventually I will also allow changing the color for radar ranges.