Changelog

Map

• Island list redesigned from a two-column grid to a single dropdown selector with a detail panel
• Detail panel shows coordinates, copy button, Show on Map, View weather page, and current weather conditions
• Favourite islands appear at the top of the dropdown in a separate group
• Selecting an island in the dropdown centres the map on that island and shows distance rings
• Clicking a map marker updates the dropdown selection and detail panel
• Previous non-favourite markers are automatically removed when selecting a new island
• Inline weather data row showing temperature, conditions, wind, pressure (desktop), and humidity (desktop)
• Updated timestamp with freshness pill showing how recently weather data was refreshed
• "How to Use This Interactive Map" section now always visible instead of collapsed
• Coordinates line centred on mobile for better alignment

Storm Archive

• CPA summary row toggles between "CPA" (collapsed) and "Closest Point of Approach" (expanded)
• Distance colour coding (red, orange, yellow) now applies only to distance values, not island names
• Hover highlight on CPA summary rows
• All dates now show full day of week and month name on desktop (e.g., "Tuesday, October 21, 2025")
• Shorter abbreviated dates on mobile to reduce wrapping (e.g., "Oct 21, 2025")
• Maximum intensity and CPA dates right-aligned with a faint dashed leader line on desktop
• Dates drop to their own line on mobile for cleaner readability

Site-wide

• Removed underlines from pill-styled links on hover across all pages
• Replaced Font Awesome clipboard icon with inline SVG for reliable rendering

Map

• Island weather pages now link directly to the interactive map, zoomed in on that island
• "Show on Map" links now position the island marker lower on the map for better visibility
• Island markers remain visible when navigating from other pages
• Reset map now clears any island-specific view and returns to the full overview

Island Pages

• Color-coded "feels like" temperature pill — blue, orange, red, or purple based on intensity
• Current conditions metrics reordered: Temperature, Wind, Pressure, Humidity
• All weather values displayed in bold for easier scanning
• Metric labels given a muted colour to better distinguish values from labels
• Temperatures rounded to whole numbers for consistency with forecasts
• Map link styled as a bold pill for better visibility

Outlook Page

• New GOES East Infrared animations for the Caribbean and Atlantic added to the satellite animations section
• New Additional Satellite Images section with SAL Natural Color, SAL Dust Tracker, and GOES RGB Dust imagery
• Color-coded legend below the GOES Dust RGB image explaining what each colour represents
• Image and animation descriptions moved above each chart as collapsible headings
• Expandable explanations added for all forecast charts, satellite animations, SST, and dust imagery
• Only one description can be expanded at a time to keep the page compact
• Uniform heading names for NHC charts: Caribbean 12-hr wind, surface analysis, and wave height
• Satellite animation play button moved to bottom-right with "PLAY" label
• Animation overlay now transparent by default, darkens on hover
• Rewritten satellite animations introduction for clarity
• Source-specific attribution below each animation (NASA/MSFC or NOAA)
• Key links styled as pills for consistency across the site
• "Additional Satellite Images" renamed to "Regional Satellite Images"
• Dust colour legend moved inside the collapsible GOES RGB Dust description
• Satellite image lightbox disabled on mobile where full-size viewing offers no benefit
• New NHC Caribbean Forecast Charts section with wind, surface analysis, and wave height charts moved from the weather summary
• GOES East Infrared satellite image inserted inline within the weather summary text

Performance

• Animation placeholder images and static satellite imagery now served locally instead of from external CDNs
• All locally served images converted to WebP with cache-busting timestamps

Site-wide

• New footer navigation with links to Home, Weather Locations, Outlook, Interactive Map, Storm Archive, and Back to Top
• Current page highlighted in the footer navigation

Weather Page

• Inline links to Outlook and Interactive Map styled as pills for consistency

Home Page

• Added note directing visitors to the Weather Locations page for a weather-only view

Accessibility

• Descriptive alt text and title tooltips added to all images and animations on the outlook page
• Navigation links bolded site-wide for better readability

Bug Fixes

• Fixed strict_types declaration error in subscriber cleanup cron script

Performance

• Satellite images now served in WebP format with JPEG fallback.
• Prioritised loading of above-the-fold satellite images for faster page rendering
• Cross-page image prefetching between home and outlook pages for faster navigation
• Fancybox CSS loaded asynchronously to eliminate render-blocking
• Google Fonts now served from Cloudflare edge, reducing external requests and latency

Map

• Replaced weather overlay with higher-quality radar data from RainViewer
• Full screen toggle now hidden on devices that do not support the Fullscreen API
• NHC tracking chart download link moved inside the collapsible "How to use" section
• Removed "Map Companion" heading for a cleaner layout
• Island list now always displays all 14 islands regardless of favorites filter
• Toggling a favorite star now immediately updates marker visibility on the map
• Removed underline decoration on zoom controls
• Tighter padding on map info panel

Storm Archive

• Added visual legend with side-by-side storm classification and CPA charts
• Legend moved from the top to the bottom of the storm list

Features

• Shareable weather chart links on island pages via URL hash parameters
• Temperature comparison line colour changed to lighter blue for better contrast

Improvements

• Updated home page intro text, storm greeting messages and About section wording
• Consistent border-radius across all images and containers on the outlook page
• Updated footer disclaimer wording
• Simplified satellite image markup on the outlook page, removing redundant DOM elements
• Consistent mobile and desktop behaviour for satellite image lightbox across all pages

Accessibility

• Improved footer text contrast for better readability
• Version link in footer restyled for consistency with surrounding text

Bug Fixes

• Fixed subscribe form CSRF token failing due to premature session output
• Fixed radar overlay not loading when the toggle was already checked on page load
• Replaced hardcoded Postmark token in cleanup script with shared configuration constant

Performance

• Optimised database queries on the home and weather pages for faster load times
• External scripts now load asynchronously where possible to reduce render-blocking
• Below-fold images use lazy loading
• Added DNS prefetch hints for CDN resources

Interactive Map

• Map now fills 60% of viewport height (responsive) instead of a fixed 400px
• Map controls restyled with custom toggle switches replacing plain checkboxes
• Island list redesigned as mini-cards with hover effects, gold left-border accent for favorite islands
• "Using this map" section converted to a collapsible accordion, collapsed by default to reduce page length
• Island list now displays all islands in a two-column grid (single column on mobile)
• Island weather page links now use friendly URLs and open in the same window
• Removed duplicate inline CSS already covered by the shared stylesheet

Storm Archive

• Storm cards now display color-coded classification badges
• Left-side color bar on storm cards reflects CPA proximity rather than storm intensity
• Distance color coding consistent everywhere: CPA island list uses the same yellow/orange/red thresholds
• CPA island list changed to single-column layout for improved readability
• Improved CPA accordion with custom expand/collapse indicator and top border separator
• Year navigation updated from pipe-separated links to pill-style buttons
• Storm cards have hover effects and consistent styling with the rest of the site

Security

• Added form protection across all subscription forms
• Security headers (content type sniffing protection, frame options, referrer policy) added site-wide
• Sensitive configuration values moved to environment variables

Code Quality

• Removed 30+ legacy backup files from the repository
• Consolidated duplicate helper functions into a single shared module
• Extracted shared CSS from inline styles into the main stylesheet
• Extracted shared JavaScript into an external file

New Features

• Data freshness indicators now shows "Updated X minutes ago" with color-coded staleness warnings
• Skip-to-content links and ARIA landmarks added for improved accessibility on all pages

Design Refresh

• New typography: switched to Inter for a sharper, more professional feel across all pages
• Full CSS modernisation for consistent colours, spacing, and typography site-wide
• Improved island cards: updated spacing, hover effects with animation, and smooth transitions
• Responsive island grid: 3 columns on desktop, 2 on tablet, 1 on mobile
• Added focus states and accessibility improvements on form inputs and dropdowns
• Navigation links updated with pill-shaped hover backgrounds
• Storm cards refreshed with larger border-radius, box shadows, and hover glow

New Features

• Island switcher dropdown on island pages – jump between islands
• Island comparison feature on island pages – for side-by-side analysis
• Weather history data available as a JSON endpoint for chart rendering
• Regional Weather Outlook call-to-action added on the home page
• Weather page now includes a link back to the full site
• Weather descriptions cleaned up (e.g. "light intensity shower rain" = "light rain")

SEO & Meta Tags

• Dynamic month/year added to page titles and structured data across all pages
• Page-specific tags on every page (previously all pointed to the home page)
• Canonical tags added to all pages
• JSON-LD structured data (WebSite, WebPage, Place) added to every page
• Dynamic sitemap that auto-generates island URLs from the database with fresh timestamps
• Interactive Map page: full social sharing tags added (previously missing)

Code Quality

• Consolidated compass bearings, distance calculations, URL slugs, timezone conversion
• Consolidated favicon and app icon markup into a single shared include used by all pages
• Significant reduction in code duplication across the site

Improvements

• Inline styles across all pages updated to use design tokens instead of hardcoded
• Weather page fully synced with home page layout, spacing, and styling
• Mobile alignment fix for chart control dropdowns on island detail pages
• Removed inline style overrides from header links for cleaner markup

Initial Release

• Live weather conditions for 14 Eastern Caribbean islands updated hourly
• Active storm tracking with NHC forecast data, wind radii, and CPA per island
• Interactive hurricane map with forecast tracks and wind radius visualisation
• Weather history charts (wind, pressure, temp, rainfall) with multiple time ranges
• Eastern Caribbean weather outlook with GOES-19 satellite imagery
• NHC tropical weather discussion, and offshore forecasts
• Historical storm archive browsable by year
• Email alert subscriptions for storm proximity warnings
• Imperial/metric unit toggle persisted across visits
• Favourite islands feature (pin up to 3 islands to the top)
• Mobile-responsive dark theme design