Weather Star XL - Timeline

Timeline

  • Late 1998 - The Weather Star XL first appears on select cable company headends after exiting beta earlier in the year. The XL's graphics first appeared in a The Front commercial from 1998. (The Front was much like a sports bar, but only with weather; it served as the primary advertising campaign for TWC in 1997 and 1998.)
  • Late 1999 - Weatherscan Local debuts on some cable systems as a 24-hour channel showing weather information on a loop. Weatherscan Local launches on Star XL hardware.
  • January 2000 - The Vocal Local system debuts, using the voice of TWC staff announcer Allen Jackson to read current conditions and extended forecast information. Some XLs do not feature Vocal Local.
  • May 2000 - The shadow effect is added to the precipitation on the radar segments.
  • 2000- Weatherscan Local receives a complete relaunch, giving it a myriad of customizable weather packages and a new look. Among the packages: extra area forecasts, activity forecasts, health information, aviation, international weather conditions, the forecast in Spanish, gardening information, surf and marine information, national travel weather, and airport delays and conditions.
  • July 2001 - The radar is updated to show more frames. It now shows approximately 30 frames instead of the previous 8-10 frames it used to show.
  • September 2001 - The Weather Channel and the Star XL get new graphics. Some XL systems got this upgrade in March 2002, and at least one XL unit only received the update partially until July 2002, intermittently losing Vocal Local and retaining the old regional forecast animation and maps.
    • The date and time are repositioned to make way for larger title bars.
    • A new cloud wallpaper is added.
    • weather.com is added underneath the Weather Channel's logo.
    • The maps are no longer topographical. (Compare this link with this link).
  • 2002- The Marine Forecasts on the XL and 4000 have been discontinued, however, it is unclear when this happened, but it is likely that around the same time as when NWS forecasts or the Regional Conditions screen disappeared.
  • March 2002 - A daypart forecast and 7-day extended forecast known as the "Week Ahead" is introduced. The 3-day extended forecast still displays during the 90 second forecast segment.
    • On the 1 minute flavor, the regional conditions map is replaced by the daypart forecast.
    • The radar has been repositioned from the end of the forecast to the middle right after the current conditions. This applies to all flavors except the 60 second forecast segment.
    • The margins on the 3-day extended forecast page are widened slightly. As a result, phrases such as "Partly Cloudy" and "Mostly Cloudy" are now fit into one line as opposed to two like before this update.
  • If no gusts are reported, "none" would display for gusts on the lower display line during local forecasts and national broadcasts. This no longer happens. Instead, the gusts are not shown on the LDL if no gusts are reported.
    • The watch expiration phrase for severe weather watches has been changed. For example: "SAT 0900 PM EDT" becomes "9:00 PM EDT Saturday."
    • A Pollen Levels tagging product is introduced.
    • Some glitches involving ad tags are fixed.
    • The moon icons in the Almanac are now displayed correctly for the Northern Hemisphere.
  • April 2002 - The forecasts on the system now come directly from The Weather Channel, instead of the National Weather Service.
    • As a result, weather bulletins are now shown on a dedicated page. Bulletins include advisories, watches, statements, and warnings.
    • Some icons, such as "variably cloudy" and "PM clouds" are discontinued. "Partly Cloudy and Windy" and "AM Clouds/PM Sun" is slightly modified.
  • July 2002
    • The regional conditions map, that shows the current weather conditions for the surrounding region, is discontinued.
    • In the top 30 DMAs, the regional forecast map, which shows the forecast for select cities throughout a region, is discontinued and is replaced by a metro forecast map. This shows forecast for select cities in a city's metropolitan area within a 75-100 mile radius.
  • Early 2003 - The text that is used on the station ID becomes bolder and slightly larger. Some of the old 1999 text is still in use until later on in the year.
  • April 2003 - The "AM," "PM," and "FEW" variations to the weather icons are introduced to the forecast maps; live national broadcasts also received this upgrade.
    • The "AM" and "PM" variations to the weather icons on the lower display line have been modified. They are now in lower-case white text. Previously, they were in uppercase in a white-to-light blue gradient. The national broadcasts, as well as weather.com, however, received this upgrade a month or two earlier.
    • The 36 hour forecast segment has been modified so it is easier to understand. Previously, if the forecast for a time period were to split into two pages (due to its length) it would split in a middle of a sentence. Now, whenever possible, it would split to two pages in between each sentence. A line break was added between each time period.
  • June 2003 - On the 1 minute forecast, the daypart forecast and regional/metro forecast screens are replaced by a two-page text-based forecast.
  • September 27, 2003 - The lower display line (LDL) graphic that is shown on live national forecasts is redesigned. It is now black and opaque (previously translucent) and the logo appears on the graphic for the first time in Weather Star history.
    • During programming such as Storm Stories, more detailed information is provided on the lower display line.
  • September 29, 2003 - The lower display line is now shown for all national segments (except if there is a weather watch, warning, or statement in effect). Previously the LDL was only shown if there was no information on the bottom of the forecast maps that the LDL may block (with either red or orange).
  • September 2004 - The 3-day "extended forecast" segment is discontinued due to a discontinuation of the 90 second flavor.
  • August 15, 2005 - The XL gets new graphics once again, now featuring a modernized TWC logo, a sunny background, and new title bars. "weather.com" is moved from underneath the TWC logo to a new position underneath the title bar of each screen's segment.
    • During the Severe Weather Alerts in the "Weather Bulletin" page, the NOAA logo is removed, leaving only the National Weather Service.
    • In certain areas, the narration is a second ahead, thus leaving a one-second gap after each narration.
  • Late August-Early September 2005 - On the regional and metro forecast maps, many cities are added and removed.
    • On some XLs, a city's icon will be partially obscured with the LDL, however, it is unclear if this is an error or not.
    • The IntelliStar also received this upgrade, but no icon overlaping with the LDL like the XL.
  • February 21, 2006 - Since the 90 second forecast is brought back, the 3-day extended forecast returns to the XL at :18 and :48 after the hour.
  • June 26, 2006 - The 3-day extended forecast is once again discontinued due the second discontinuation of the 90-second flavor.
  • January 23, 2007 - As with the IntelliStar, the XL begins showing wintry precipitation on the radar. However, the precipitation key on the title bar heading is not updated.
  • April 23, 2007 - The 3-day extended forecast returns to the XL for the third time.
  • May 18, 2009 - As a result of the 1 minute flavors airing at :08/:38 and :18/:48 past the hour from 10am-2pm ET (10am-4pm ET if there's a Special Coverage) weekdays and 11am-2pm ET (11am-5pm ET if there's a Special Coverage) on weekends, the 3-Day Extended Forecast does not display at these time periods.
  • July 20, 2009 - Because of the 90-second flavor airing at :08/:38 during Wake Up with Al at 6am and 10am ET, the 3-Day Extended Forecast airs 4 times an hour during these time periods, and the 1 minute flavors start airing at 11am ET.
    • A new flavor has been added to the XL's lineup. Instead of the typical 90 second flavor, which features the 8 city, this flavor takes the front page directly to the radar. The extra time is then used for the daypart forecast. This flavor airs at :18/:48 during Wake Up With Al, and some other times in the morning/midday.
  • September 28, 2009 - The 3-Day Extended Forecast always airs at :18/:48 as a result of normal LF lengths resuming during the 10am-2pm ET weekday and the 11am-2pm ET weekend time periods.
  • March 11, 2010 - The XL's LDL is no longer cued during regular broadcasts. This is due to the new national LDL introduced on that date that cycles between a small-sized and large-sized LDL, the latter of which is much larger than the XL's LDL, which did not receive a graphical update, making it the first time that a STAR system does not show local weather information during national programming. The IntelliStar received an update to their LDLs on that date. The warning scrolls are still activated when extreme weather is taking place.
  • January 25, 2012 - Vocal local has been disabled on all STAR XLs nationwide. It is unknown if this was an intentional change or not.
  • May 22, 2012 - Since the 90 second flavors started airing at :28 and :58 each hour, the 3-Day Extended Forecast once again displays during Day Planner and Weather Center Live, thus the 7-Day Forecast was discontinued during the 2-minute flavors and only appears during the 1-minute flavors each hour during Day Planner and Weather Center Live, and thus the 7-Day Forecast was discontinued in all flavors from 4:00am ET to 6:00am ET weekdays during First Outlook, and from 4:30am ET to 11:00am ET weekends during Weekend View. Though the 7-Day Forecast once again continued to air during the 2-minute flavors during Wake Up with Al and Your Weather Today (until November 9, 2012), at 4:28am ET after The Weather Classroom, and beginning November 12, 2012, the 7-Day Forecast appears in all flavors weekdays from 4:00am ET to 11:00am ET, and again from 5:00pm ET to 2:00am ET weeknights beginning February 18, 2013, and then all day beginning April 1, 2013, all during the 1-minute flavors.

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