FAQ

Samford Valley Weather is a WordPress and Divi 5 presentation system for local weather and related community information.

Select the [?] help button in that block. Block-specific instructions and FAQs are kept with the block.

Different blocks update from different sources and schedules. The footer timestamp shows when that block was last updated where the block exposes one.

SVW public presentation generally uses Samford local time unless a source image or source label explicitly displays another timezone.

Historical displays depend on stored source records and the processing available for the selected period. Missing source records or unavailable archives can create gaps.

SVW combines local station data, stored SVW database records and external provider data where each block states its source.

No. SVW is supplementary public information and must not be used as the sole source for safety-critical, aviation, emergency or navigation decisions. Use official authoritative sources for those purposes.

SVW blocks are designed to be responsive. Some map and graph interactions may adapt to the available screen size.

Some map blocks use an activation step so page scrolling remains manageable on touch and wheel devices.

Use the block refresh control where available, then check the block timestamp and any source-health information shown by the block.

SVW Flight data provides activity indicators such as aircraft frequency, altitude, aircraft type, propulsion type and duration or pattern of aircraft activity. These may assist users in understanding aircraft activity relevant to potential local noise impact.

SVW does not currently directly measure aircraft noise levels unless a separate calibrated acoustic measurement capability is introduced.

Aircraft engines produce exhaust emissions. SVW Flight data provides activity-related proxies such as aircraft count, type, propulsion, altitude, frequency and duration.

SVW does not directly measure aircraft exhaust emissions or ambient air pollutant concentrations.

Aircraft activity may be relevant to community interest in atmospheric deposition, local rainwater catchment and possible local exposure pathways. Flight observations alone do not demonstrate contamination. SVW does not directly measure atmospheric deposition, rainwater contamination, soil contamination or chemical contamination attributable to a particular aircraft.

Current overhead aircraft are selected from active passages with latest Detection Area-qualified observations. Community Impact qualification is narrower and is used for below-threshold impact metrics.

Received observations are stored internally using canonical UTC timestamps. Public passages summarise aircraft activity derived from those observations.

Received aircraft observations and passages are enriched from commissioned reference data where available. This may include airline/operator, callsign, registration, manufacturer, model, aircraft type, propulsion classification and other commissioned aircraft-reference information. Some values may remain unknown or incomplete where source data is unavailable.

Today runs from 00:00 Australia/Brisbane local time through the latest available observation on the current local calendar day. Today is not a rolling 24-hour period. Yesterday is the complete preceding Australia/Brisbane calendar day.

Aircraft information may be incomplete, delayed or inaccurate. SVW Flights is provided for general, personal and non-commercial information only and must not be used for aviation, navigation, surveillance, safety, security or operational purposes.

The banner participates in the shared site refresh cycle and can show a different state from data blocks that refresh on their own schedules.

It shows Bureau of Meteorology rendered climate-normal maps for Queensland, focused on regional climate context around Samford Valley and surrounds.

It is a 30-year reference period used to describe long-term average climate conditions.

The Bureau maps are spatially analysed regional climatology products. Local terrain, exposure, elevation and individual properties can differ from the broad mapped values.

No. The Climate Map is long-term climatology. It does not show current weather, forecasts or seasonal outlooks.

The rendered map products are published by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and use the Bureau climate averages mapping products for rainfall and temperature.

It is the timestamp for the observation currently used by this block, shown in Samford local time.

Different blocks can use different source data, processing steps and refresh schedules.

The block shows unavailable values neutrally when an authoritative count cannot be produced from the current database state.

The current view follows stored observations and configured timing rules. Aircraft can leave the configured area, stop matching current criteria, or stop being received.

Today is the current Samford local calendar day from midnight through the latest available observation.

The current view follows stored observations and configured timing rules. Aircraft can leave the configured area, stop matching current criteria, or stop being received.

Today is the current Samford local calendar day from midnight through the latest available observation.

No. It is a compact presentation of the Flights feature with its own Dashboard availability state.

Future forecast values are retrieved server-side from Open-Meteo for the Samford Valley monitoring coordinates. Public browsers do not call the provider directly.

No. Values labelled Now at SVW are local station observations. Values labelled Forecast are external forecast values for the same location.

If the provider is temporarily unavailable, SVW can show the most recent cached forecast for a limited period and labels it as temporarily stale.

The legacy History block compares point-in-time archive rows. SVW reproduces that behaviour by reading the latest stored observation at or before each target time.

The requested metric may be missing in the nearest stored observation, or the archive may not contain any record at or before that target time.

Historical periods can summarise observations over intervals so the graph remains readable.

Gaps can occur when the underlying stored observations are unavailable for part of the selected period.

The display depends on the external lightning data available to the block and the current map view.

The block depends on the embedded external source being reachable and able to display inside the page.

No. Refreshing reloads the SVW block and embedded map frame, but the external lightning source controls its own available data.

The block loads an external map frame, which can take a short time to initialise and draw its controls.

Radar images are supplied by the external source and can update on a different schedule from local station observations.

The block depends on source imagery being available. If the source cannot be reached, SVW may show cached imagery or an unavailable state depending on what is available.

No. Refreshing asks SVW to reload the block, but the external radar imagery may not have changed yet.

The block may need to load several image frames and overlays before the display is ready.

Each circle compares the selected period rainfall with the matching historical average. The visible ring fill is capped at a full circle, but the percentage text still shows values above 100%.

The percentage is rainfall divided by the equivalent historical average for the same elapsed period. Month and year comparisons use month-to-date and year-to-date windows rather than full-month or full-year totals.

Rain rate now is the current canonical station rain-rate observation from alldata.RR, shown in millimetres per hour.

Last 7 days covers today plus the preceding six Samford local calendar days.

Last rain is derived from recent positive rain-rate observations and rainfall-counter increases in the canonical station data.

Some current comparisons require complete daily source coverage. Missing or ineligible days are never treated as normal days, dry days or no-event days.

Rainfall totals use the canonical station daily rainfall counter. Month-to-date and year-to-date rainfall totals are shown only when every day in the rainfall period is eligible.

No. Coverage and gap diagnostics are Dashboard-only.

The source imagery can display source timestamps. In Queensland, local time is UTC plus 10 hours.

The block depends on source imagery being available. If the source cannot be reached, SVW may show cached imagery or an unavailable state depending on what is available.

Yes. Refreshing the SVW block reloads the block display, but the external source imagery may not have changed yet.

The block may need to load multiple satellite and radar overlay frames before the display is ready.

Unknown or expired health results resolve conservatively to Down until a fresh background check or canonical source update is available.

No. Public rendering and refresh use local database, operational-state and cached probe results. Web and Internet checks run in a bounded background task.

Multi-day periods require the date to identify when the extreme occurred.

Rainfall is based on the cumulative R rainfall counter. The period rainfall, Max/Day and Avg/Day values follow local-day rainfall totals rather than instantaneous rain rate.

Historical source coverage can contain gaps or invalid readings, which are excluded from calculations.

No. It only changes the window over which the existing station observations are summarised.

Those labels refer to the neighbouring calendar dates across the historical archive. They are not yesterday’s actual weather or tomorrow’s forecast.

Historical record calculations are loaded lazily so the main page can return quickly. Dashes are shown only after a requested record has no available data.

The public collection uses curated local Weather, Space and Aircraft seed datasets. Approved external-source checks remain server-side and disabled unless enabled by an administrator.

No. Public refreshes select another fact from the local SVW trivia dataset.

Facts are periodically reviewed against authoritative sources, but records and scientific knowledge can change. The public disclaimer reflects that reality.

Warnings move out of the current view when their source no longer reports them as current or the block reconciles them into archive history.

SVW only displays structured sources that are enabled and available to the block. Source Health reports provider availability separately from warning priority.

Yes. Administrators edit the heading and body in the SVW Dashboard settings.