For the 09/10 season we have created a new feature on the site that lets people 'vote' for the current weather at resorts.  We've given it the snappy name of Current Weather Conditions - Live Feedback, though we are open to some good ideas and actually running a little competition on the site to see if anyone can come up with anything better.  Details of that can be found here.

You can find this one each resort page* on SnowJapan.  It looks like this:

Current Weather Conditions - Live Feedback
Blizzard	Snow	Rain	Cloud	Sun
23 (34)	4 (13)	0 (0)	0 (0)	4 (10)
Numbers shown are votes registered between 8:15am and 9:15am, 14th October.
Next Update due at 9:30am, 14th October.
View archive data			Webmasters	ABOUT

 
What's it all about?

The idea is that people who are at Japanese snow resorts can share the current weather conditions with readers of SnowJapan.  Readers will hopefully get a more real-time idea of what the current weather is like at Japanese snow resorts at any given time as well as be able to look back on archives for a resort or for any date to see how the weather was.

Of course, this needs people to actually vote!  So, if you live near a resort or are visiting, please do every now and again help share information on the current weather conditions by voting either on the pages on the site, on your own website or via mobile phone.

As you can see there are five weather icons - Blizzard, Snow, Rain, Cloud and Sun. Underneath the icons are two numbers:

The top black number displays the number of votes registered in the previous period of one hour.  That data get updated every 15 minutes.

The bottom smaller blue number shows the number of total votes registered since the beginning of the current day (ie. midnight). That data is also updated every 15 minutes and reset at midnight each day.

[Obviously it was a very nice day at that resort above!  23 people have voted for Blizzard in the previous hour, with 34 voting for Blizzard since midnight.  4 people had voted for Snow in the previous 1 hour, with 13 voting for Snow since midnight.  etc]

You can vote once every 15 minutes.

On the chart you'll also see a link called View archive data:

Resort Archive Data:

The archive data shows the total number of votes for each type of weather for that particular resort during each 24 hour period.  The type of weather with the most votes on any one day is shown with a blue cell highlight.  A new row of data is added to this chart at midnight each day, showing the data for the previous 24 hours.  Archives for previous months will also be available with links to those at the bottom of the page.

> Sample for Naeba resort in Niigata prefecture
* please note that as this is new, there is no current archived data.

The chart will look something like this (dummy data alert! there were no actual blizzards in Hakkoda in August):

Daily Archived Charts:

We have also created some daily charts that will show the results and votes for every resort that has some data for that particular day.  The resorts are shown by prefecture and sorted alphabetically within each prefecture.  If there are no votes for a resort on that day, the resort does not appear in the table.  A new chart is added at midnight each day, showing the data for the previous 24 hours.  Archives for previous months will also be available with links to those at the bottom of the page.

You will be able to view these charts via the Now Calendar - click on the CHARTS icon on a date to view the charts.

> Sample for October 13th 2009
* please note that as this is new, there is no current archived data.

The chart will look something like this (again, dummy data alert!):

So how do you vote?  There are 3 ways:

Resort pages on SnowJapan:

The chart is displayed on the basic resort information pages within SnowJapan.   For example:

> Naeba
> Niseko Grand Hirafu
> Happo-one

Click on the appropriate weather icon to register a vote.

Mobile Voting:

You can vote from your mobile phone (for those able to view simple webpages on their phones).  Just go to:

http://www.snowjapan.com/i/weather.php

....and you'll find a list of prefectures, followed by a list of resorts - easy!

Plugging a chart into your website:

Anyone can display any of our charts on their own websites.  From there the data will be displayed and you will be able to click on the link to vote.

On the main chart you will also see a link called Webmasters.  Following that page will show you how you can very easily insert the weather vote chart for any resort onto another webpage/website. 

It's very simple - just one line of code - and free.  If you wish to plug in any of our charts into your website and need help, just let us know and we will be very happy to help.

The code is as follows:

<iframe src="http://www.snowjapan.com/e/resorts/feedchart.php?resid=85>" frameborder="0" width="450" height="210" style="border:0px;"></iframe>

The above code is for the Hakkoda resort in Aomori, which has a code number 85.  You can see the number 85 in the above code.  Changing that code to 1 will insert the data for Naeba resort, changing it to 120 will insert the data for Niseko Grand Hirafu resort.  You can easily obtain these codes by clicking on the Webmasters link on each resort info page on SnowJapan.

Code for Naeba:

<iframe src="http://www.snowjapan.com/e/resorts/feedchart.php?resid=1>" frameborder="0" width="460" height="215" style="border:0px;"></iframe>

Code for Niseko Grand Hirafu:

<iframe src="http://www.snowjapan.com/e/resorts/feedchart.php?resid=120>" frameborder="0" width="460" height="215" style="border:0px;"></iframe>

By inserting that simple code into a page, you can easily display the below on any website:

The data that is displayed is exactly the same as the data displayed on SnowJapan and is updated automatically in real-time.  The only difference is that to register a new vote, people will need to click on the links to go to the basic resort info page on SnowJapan. 

FINALLY:

Please do take part if you are at a resort, or know someone who is there and has reliably told you what it's doing!  If you register your vote, readers of SnowJapan (and other sites where the charts are displayed) will be able to see it within 15 minutes.  The more votes the better!

Feel free to plug in any of the charts into webpages that you own.  There's no need to ask us and it's free.

IMPORTANT REQUESTS:

* PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR THE WEATHER YOU WANT
* DO NOT VOTE IF YOU ARE NOT THERE
* DO NOT LIE OR DECEIVE!

Remember this is not a vote for the weather that you want at a resort!  It's a tool to allow people who are there to vote for the actual weather at a resort.  The information will only be of use if people vote with the correct info..... so please use it correctly.

We have a few mechanisms in place to prevent people posting more than they should (once every 15 minutes) and a few other security measures.  Please do not abuse this system.  If we find anyone abusing it, we will do what we can to ban them from using the site in general.

Also, one last thing:

This is meant to be fun  - of course, it's not a scientific report!  Please keep that in mind when reading the data and please only register votes that matter.  Thank you.

Why is there no chart for my favourite resort?

This functionality is not turned on for every resort in Japan.  Currently we have it turned on for most of the popular resorts.  We may turn on/off for particular resorts at any time. 

If there is currently no chart for your favourite resort and you would like to post votes for that resort, please let us know at weathercharts@snowjapan.com and we will turn it on for you.

Thank you.  We hope you enjoy using this new feature.