Firefox Add-ons: Forecastfox Weather 2.0

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Mankind has forever been intrigued with the weather. Crops are planted according to the weather. Plant at the wrong time, and you risk wiping out an entire crop. Outdoor events are planned with regard to the weather. We get dressed in the morning, according to the weather. The weather permeates so many aspects of our lives, and has done so since the dawn of civilization.

Even into the 21st Century, weather continues to be a focal point in our lives. Enter Forecastfox Weather 2.0, a Firefox add-on that provides not only the current weather conditions, but also a five day forecast of expected weather conditions. Also, Forecastfox Weather 2.0 will provide a live, on-demand animated weather radar for your registered location. Forecastfox Weather will display the weather information not only for the United States, but also for international locations, as well.

A little history

Originally, I had planned on writing about Forecastbar Enhanced 0.9. It contained all of the features of Forecastfox Weather, plus a lot of extras, including the live, on-demand animated radar image. When I first went to the add-on's download page, you can imagine my horror when it prominently stated that Forecastbar Enhanced 0.9 was no longer being developed.

Forecastfox Weather originally debuted in December, 2004, and was available for Firefox versions 0.10 through 1.0+. It was originally named Weatherfox. After 38 more subsequent releases, we now are up to Forecastfox Weather 2.0.1. To date, more than 21,000,000 users have downloaded the vastly popular add-on.

After a little further investigation, I discovered that Aaron Sarna, the developer who added all the extra features and whistles and bells to Forecastfox Weather to create Forecastbar Enhanced 0.9, has joined the Forecastfox Weather development team. As a result, Forecastfox Weather 2.0.1 contains all of those enhancements that were formerly in Forecastbar Enhanced 0.9.

What you get

When you first install Forecastfox Weather 2.0, it will add its display to your menu bar (at least it did on my computer, and I cannot be certain if that is the default position, or because that's where I had the previous version of Forecastbar Enhanced appear). You can move it with the gray icon that depicts a 4-way arrow (far left side of the data displayed). You can choose to place it in your status bar, on the main toolbar, on your tab bar, or on your bookmarks bar. Basically, you should be able to place it wherever find it most convenient to use.

By hovering your mouse over the green radar icon will cause a popup window to be displayed, complete with an animated radar image of your registered area. The radar image, along with all of the other weather data and forecasts, is supplied by AccuWeather.com. Simply clicking the left mouse button over any part of the Forecastfox Weather add-on will open the AccuWeather.com page for your area, providing more in-depth weather information.

By clicking your right mouse button over the Forecastfox Weather add-on, you will get the context menu that provides you several options. From there, you can give feedback to the Forecastfox developers for future improvements, visit the Forecastfox home page, visit the AccuWeather.com home pate, or recommend the add-on to your friends.

You can also access information on how to troubleshoot any problems you may be having in getting Forecastfox set up. The "Reload Weather Data" is useful if you have lost your network connection for an extended period of time, or if you want to update the weather information earlier than the routine weather updates you have set. You can also switch locations, since Forecastfox allows you to monitor the weather at multiple locations. This is a very handy feature if you are going on vacation, or if you have family living in locations other than your own.

When you select "Options" from the context menu, a new tab will open in Firefox, and allows you to make various settings related to how Forecastfox displays the various weather data. You can choose the units of measure to use, select from several different icon sets to use when displaying your weather data, whether or not to display severe weather alerts, the size of the radar or satellite image to display (or none at all), the number of days to include in the forecast, and many other settings that dictate what information to display, as well as how to display it.

Conclusion

For me, Forecastfox Weather is one of those "must have" Firefox add-ons. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I look at it during the course of the day. There is also a version available for the Google Chromium browser, although it lacks many of the features of the Firefox version. But if you like to keep track of current weather conditions, as well as keep your eye on the weather forecast, you will fall in love with Forecastfox Weather.