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Weather Color Algorithm

The current weather color algorithm ignores visibility and optional attributes.  The following table illustrates the color algorithm. A composite weather type is defined as more than one weather type combined for one coverage/probability.  For example, rain is a weather type and snow is a weather type. Combining rain and snow would be considered a composite weather type.

Number of Unique Coverages/Probabilites	Fill Pattern	Composite Weather Type	Color
1	Based on entries in WeatherCoverage_names and WeatherCoverage_fillPatterns.  Only one fill pattern will be used based on the coverage/probability term.	No	First looks in  WeatherTypeInten_names and WeatherTypeInten_colors to look for a type and intensity match.  If not found, looks in WeatherType_names and WeatherType_colors for a match.  If not found, then assigns a color from WeatherGeneric_colors.
1	Based on entries in WeatherCoverage_names and WeatherCoverage_fillPatterns.  Only one fill pattern will be used based on the coverage/probability term.	Yes	First looks in  WeatherTypeInten_names and WeatherTypeInten_colors to look for a composite type and intensity match.  If not found, looks in WeatherType_names and WeatherType_colors for a match.  If not found, then assigns a color from WeatherGeneric_colors.
2	Based on entries in WeatherCoverage_names and WeatherCoverage_fillPatterns.  The fill pattern is determined for both of the unique coverages/probabilities.  The pattern is overlapped on the display.	No	For each unique coverage/probability, first looks in  WeatherTypeInten_names and WeatherTypeInten_colors to look for a type and intensity match.  If not found, looks in WeatherType_names and WeatherType_colors for a match.  If not found, then assigns a color from WeatherGeneric_colors. The result is two colors on the display each with different fill patterns.
2	Based on entries in WeatherCoverage_names and WeatherCoverage_fillPatterns.  The fill pattern is determined for both of the unique coverages/probabilities.  The pattern is overlapped on the display.	Yes	For each unique coverage/probability, first looks in  WeatherTypeInten_names and WeatherTypeInten_colors to look for a composite type and intensity match.  If not found, looks in WeatherType_names and WeatherType_colors for a match.  If not found, then assigns a color from WeatherGeneric_colors. The result is two colors on the display each with different fill patterns.
3 or more	Solid fill pattern is always used.	N/A	Uses a color from WeatherGeneric_colors.  The solid pattern denotes a "complex" set of weather.

Weather Coverage Fill Patterns

WeatherCoverage_names and WeatherCoverage_fillPatterns are parallel lists of values and must be the same size.  For each possible weather coverage, the fill patterns array defines the fill pattern to use.  There are only a few allowed fill patterns and line patterns that may be used. If additional patterns are designed, you will need to contact the developers. The available fill patterns are:

WHOLE

WIDE

SCATTERED

WIDE_SCATTERED

ISOLATED

TRANS_25PC_45DEG

TRANS_25PC_135DEG

SELECTED_AREA

DUALCURVE

CURVE

VERTICAL

CROSS

HORIZONTAL

You can view examples of these fill patterns here.

For example, if "Iso" coverage is in the 1st entry of the list and ISOLATED appears in the first entry of the fill patterns, the for Iso coverage, the fill pattern ISOLATED will be used.

WeatherCoverage_names = ["Iso", "WSct", "Sct", "Num", "Wide", "Ocnl", "SChc",
"Chc", "Lkly", "Def", "Patchy", "<NoCov>"]
WeatherCoverage_fillPatterns = ["ISOLATED", "WIDE_SCATTERED", "SCATTERED", "WIDE", "WIDE", "TRANS_25PC_45DEG", "ISOLATED", "WIDE_SCATTERED", "SCATTERED", "WIDE", "SCATTERED", "WHOLE"]
 

Defining Color Entries for Weather Types and Intensities

With the set of WeatherType and WeatherTypeInten lists, the user may specify different color combinations for different weather types.  An example of this is shown in the following table:

Weather Type/Intensity	Desired Color
Snow regardless of intensity	White
Rain, all intensities other than heavy	Green
Rain, heavy	cyan
Fog	Yellow
Rain and Snow Mixed	Purple
Freezing Rain	Orange
Thunderstorms (TRW)	Red
Strong Thunderstorms (T+RW)	Red1
No weather	Gray40

The entries in the two lists would be as follows:

WeatherType_names = ["S", "R", "F", "RS", "ZR", "TRW", "<NoWx>"]
WeatherType_colors = ["white", "green", "yellow", "purple", "orange", "red", "gray40"]
WeatherTypeInten_names = ["T+RW", "R+"]
WeatherTypeInten_colors = ["red1", "cyan"]

The weather type entries are parallel lists of values and must be the same size.  The user defines the color desired for a particular composite weather type.  The color names may be X colors either in named color or #rrggbb format. This list does not contain intensity descriptors and is searched after the WeatherTypeInten_names and WeatherTypeInten_colors.

The weather type intensity entries are parallel lists of values and must be the same size. The user defines the color desired for a particular composite weather type and intensity.
 

Weather Generic Colors

Weather Generic colors are used for any types that are not defined in the WeatherType_names or WeatherTypeInten_names.  The set of generic colors are also used for complex weather patterns, where 3 or more different probabilities/coverages are present in a grid cell.  The colors in this list will be used before a "random" color is chosen.

WeatherGeneric_colors = ["Coral", "CadetBlue2", "Aquamarine", "DarkKhaki",
"DodgerBlue", "IndianRed1", "PaleGreen", "MistyRose", "chartreuse3", "PapayaWhip"]

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