NWS Bot Changelog
v3.5.7 (3/19/25)
- Added support for more than five weather stories at a time
v3.5.6 (12/07/24)
- Fix filter buttons in IEMBot feed setup
- Fix /alertmap command
v3.5.5 (10/08/24)
- Fix weather stories for certain NWS regions
v3.5.4 (9/02/24)
- Fix SPC outlook graphics on IEMBot feeds
v3.5.3 (8/27/24)
- Radar autopost interval can now be modified without having to disable first
v3.5.2 (8/26/24)
- Added DESTR (Destructive PDS alerts) national feed
v3.5.1 (8/25/24)
- Fixed some radar auto-posts not displaying the radar image
v3.5.0 (8/17/24)
- Added AI-powered summaries and questions on IEMBot products for servers subscribed to premium
- Significant performance improvements
v3.4.3 (8/06/24)
- Fixed a bug that would in some cases send incorrect/irrelevant products in premium national feeds
v3.4.2 (7/23/24)
- Minor performance improvements`
- Internal error reports now show some context for the exception being raised
v3.4.1 (7/23/24)
- Fix 'area' parameters in the /iembot setup command
- Update /help command
- Rename /iembot list command to /iembot feedslist
v3.4.0 (7/09/24)
- Added Tornado, Severe Wind, and Severe Hail Outlooks to /spc product command
- Implement the /spc timing command, showing Severe Weather Outlook threat timings and probabilities for select cities/locations
- Grouped IEMBot slash commands in the commands list
- Update /iembot info command documentation
- Change New Orleans, LA radar from KLIX to KHDC
- Fix weather story for ILN
v3.3.25 (7/04/24)
- Fixed /alertmap command for WFO-specific alert maps
- Fixed /wfo command
- Fixed /spc Severe Weather Outlook imagemaps
- Added optional WFO specification for Severe Weather Outlook imagemaps
v3.3.24 (6/08/24)
- Fixed weather story images being outdated
v3.3.23 (6/04/24)
- Fixed the /weatherstory command
v3.3.22 (5/18/24)
- Stream volume can now be changed via the stream control buttons
v3.3.21 (5/02/24)
- Fixed the /forecast and /weather command
v3.3.20 (4/29/24)
- Minor performance improvements
- IEMBot messages now show how long ago the message/product was sent on IEMBot
v3.3.19 (4/15/24)
- Performance improvements to radar auto-posting, area/product autocomplete with /iembot-setup, and premium subscription lookups
v3.3.18 (4/12/24)
- Significant performance improvements
v3.3.17 (4/04/24)
- Updated zone-county correlation file to March 2024
v3.3.16 (4/02/24)
- Implemented a new, experimental IEMBot feature queue prioritization policy, which will be documented in detail over the next few days
- Custom IEMBot feeds no longer work if the server is no longer subscribed to premium
- For servers with Experimental Mode enabled: IEMBot feeds will show the delay time for each message sent (time between IEM product issuance and message sent)
v3.3.15 (3/30/24)
- Additional adjustments to IEMBot feature queue and polling systems
v3.3.14 (3/29/24)
- IEMBot feature queue prioritizes premium-activated servers
v3.3.13 (1/31/24)
- Fixed bugs from last update
v3.3.12 (1/27/24)
- Weather story buttons now become disabled when the corresponding story has been viewed
v3.3.11 (10/28/23)
- Minor changes
v3.3.10 (8/12/23)
- Fixed PDS and EMERG feeds
v3.3.9 (8/11/23)
- For national feeds, added ability to choose to send only product issuances or all products
- Added the following national feeds for Premium servers:
-> RER (Record Event Reports)
-> LSR (Local Storm Reports)
-> DMG (Damage Survey PNS)
-> PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation)
-> EMERG (Tornado/Flash Flood Emergencies)
v3.3.8 (7/28/23)
- Added national SVR, TOR, and FFW feeds for Premium servers
- Added a setting to disable embedded links in IEMBot messages
v3.3.7 (7/20/23)
- Fixed typo with TWC (Tucson) WFO
v3.3.6 (7/10/23)
- Fixed bug in /stats command where shards would appear offline
v3.3.5 (7/08/23)
- Removed 'Experimental Mode' message from radar auto-posting
- Improvements to radar auto-posting
v3.3.4 (6/17/23)
- Bug fix to help prevent the bot from crashing
v3.3.3 (6/15/23)
- Minor change to message shown when no weather stories are available from a WFO
v3.3.2 (4/28/23)
- Fixes /iembot-list command for some custom feeds
v3.3.1 (4/01/23)
- Phases out product_specific feeds; the product1 variable in the /iembot-setup command replaces the product_specific variable and can now be used by all servers
v3.3.0 (3/31/23)
- Adds custom IEMBot feeds (selection of counties/zones and products)
- Introduces NWS Bot Premium subscription
v3.2.31 (2/26/23)
- Fix formatting in IEMBot messages and text products
v3.2.30 (2/26/23)
- Added ability to send messages and/or ping roles for IEMBot feeds
v3.2.29 (2/12/23)
- Weather stories should now load significantly faster
- Minor bug fixes and improvements`
v3.2.28 (1/29/23)
- Added radar auto-posting for servers with Experimental Mode enabled
v3.2.27 (1/08/23)
- Updated the weather stories feature for WFOs in the Western and Southern regions to be on par with the Central region's weather stories feature
- --> This brings titles, captions, multiple weather stories, and a 'Refresh' button to weather stories
v3.3.1 (4/01/23)
- Phases out product_specific feeds; the product1 variable in the /iembot-setup command replaces the product_specific variable and can now be used by all servers
v3.3.0 (3/31/23)
- Adds custom IEMBot feeds (selection of counties/zones and products)
- Introduces NWS Bot Premium subscription
v3.2.31 (2/26/23)
- Fix formatting in IEMBot messages and text products
v3.2.30 (2/26/23)
- Added ability to send messages and/or ping roles for IEMBot feeds
v3.2.29 (2/12/23)
- Weather stories should now load significantly faster
- Minor bug fixes and improvements
v3.2.28 (1/29/23)
- Added radar auto-posting for servers with Experimental Mode enabled
v3.2.27 (1/08/23)
- Updated the weather stories feature for WFOs in the Western and Southern regions to be on par with the Central region's weather stories feature
- --> This brings titles, captions, multiple weather stories, and a 'Refresh' button to weather stories
v3.2.26 (1/03/23)
- Added timestamps to radar image embeds
- Fixed issue that would, in rare cases, cause some IEMBot feeds to be deleted from the database due to errors
v3.2.25 (12/21/22)
- Made changes to connection code to help mitigate latency issues
- Removed prefix change setting
v3.2.24 (11/04/22)
- Updated NWS radar URL
v3.2.23 (10/04/22)
- Minor improvements for consistency and reliability
- Major updates coming soon
v3.2.22 (10/02/22)
- Added 'Cancel' and 'Report Stream Error' buttons to alternate stream prompt and changed text
- Added station callsign to stream error report prompt
v3.2.21 (9/18/22)
- Stopping a stream will now disconnect the bot from the voice channel
- Changed "Stop" button to "Disconnect"
v3.2.20 (7/28/22)
- Fixes outlook images not being posted in v3.2.19
- Added timestamps to IEMBot message embeds
- Internally, IEMBot messages are no longer removed from queue during bot reloads or restarts
v3.2.19 (7/27/22)
- For IEMBot feeds, fixed an issue where the bot would sometimes post an outdated SPC outlook image (supplements v3.2.17)
v3.2.18 (7/26/22)
- Fixed issue where filter buttons on IEMBot setup would not defer, causing the buttons to hang for 5 seconds and return "This interaction failed"
v3.2.17 (7/26/22)
- For IEMBot feeds, fixed an issue where the bot would sometimes post an outdated SPC outlook image
v3.2.16 (7/02/22)
- Fixed "Check for Updates" button behavior for Central Region WFO weather stories (fixes images)
v3.2.15 (7/01/22)
- Fixed volume and sound channel issues due to callsign differences between certain submitted NWR and AM/FM/IP stations
- The addstream command now makes it easier to add alternate streams for stations and will no longer error out with "This station already exists in the database"
v3.2.14 (7/01/22)
- Rewrote the "Check for Updates" function for weather stories for all Central Region WFOs to take into account both title and caption updates. Additionally, when checking for updates, the bot will now display the first updated weather story as well as display "(New)" next to every updated weather story
v3.2.13 (6/20/22)
- Added ability to change the bot's volume in voice channels
- Improved autocorrect
v3.2.12 (6/06/22)
- `Fixed bug on the IEMBot feed handler that, in rare cases, caused some updated feed entries to be deleted if the original channel was inaccessible due to a failure in refreshing the database buffer`
v3.2.11 (5/29/22)
- Fixed weather stories for all WFOs in the central region
v3.2.10 (5/22/22)
- Responses for reporting stream errors are now ephemeral messages
- Added Modal dialogs for certain prompts
- Added error reporting for buttons
v3.2.9 (5/21/22)
- Switched IEMBot polling method from RSS feeds to JSON service to reduce CPU and network usage
- Reduced IEMBot polling interval back to original 5 seconds
- Added SPC outlook maps from IEM
- Added hyperlinks to product names for IEMBot feeds
- Minor bug fixes
- Switch to Mapbox for location geocoding for forecast/weather commands, rather than OpenStreetMap Nominatim
v3.2.8 (5/19/22)
- Added support for permissions v2
- For traditional commands (nws!), the required permission for IEMBot feed setup is now 'Manage Channels', while the default permission to change bot settings is now 'Manage Server'
- For slash commands, by default users will now need 'Manage Channels' to setup IEMBot feeds, and 'Manage Server' to change bot settings; these can be modified in Integrations. These commands will be hidden to normal users by default
- For slash commands, to manage who can use the bot, which commands can be used, and which channels the bot can be used in, head to Server Settings > Integrations > NWS Bot
- Disabled use of certain slash commands in DM channels (voice channel streaming, server settings)
- Fix SPC, WPC, and NHC in autocorrect
v3.2.7 (5/18/22)
- Fixes bug that deletes IEMBot feed entries from the database after unhandled exceptions
v3.2.6 (5/15/22)
- Fix autocorrect behavior for WFOs
- Added SPC, WPC, and NHC to WFO autocorrect list for IEMBot setup
- Fix SPC, WPC, and NHC IEMBot feeds
v3.2.5 (5/15/22)
- Optimized IEMBot feature, reducing CPU and network usage
- Reduced poll interval from 30 seconds to 15 seconds
- For continuations, cancelations, expirations, etc. clicking the 'Text' button shows those updated text products rather than the issuance text
- Other minor improvements to the IEMBot feature
v3.2.4 (5/08/22)
- Users now need to have the Send Messages channel permission to be able to report stream errors
v3.2.3 (5/07/22)
- Optimized IEMBot feature for more efficient use of network resources
v3.2.2 (5/06/22)
- Made changes to IEMBot polling & feed parsing to avoid rate limits
v3.2.1 (5/01/22)
- Added 'Text' button to certain IEMBot products
v3.2.0 (4/30/22)
- Split single bot process into multiple shards/processes to improve performance, especially during peak usage times (view shard stats with '/stats')
- Minor fixes & improvements
v3.1.5 (4/27/22)
- Replace Geoapify with Mapbox for location autocomplete
v3.1.4 (4/25/22)
- Added autocomplete for certain fields in slash commands
v3.1.3 (4/24/22)
- When adding stations, the bot will now prompt for the user to confirm the station location if the bot pulls the stream information from fmstream
- Removed error messages in buttons in favor of ephemeral messages
- Lyrics output when clicking 'Lyrics' button is now an ephemeral message to help reduce spam
v3.1.2 (4/24/22)
- Added ability to choose source of radar image, NWS or Weather Underground
- Bot will now show station titles for Icecast streams that have provided it
- Bot will now show audio channel and stream bitrate if available
v3.1.1 (4/23/22)
- Added Experimental mode, a per-server setting allowing access to experimental features
- Added better handling of streams with self-signed SSL certificates
- Added IEMBot feed lists, available under Experimental mode
- Fixed 'Stop' button being unresponsive
v3.1.0 (4/23/22)
- Changed radar image to official NWS radar image
- Bot will now rejoin voice channels after a bot restart or outage
- Fixes for IEMBot product-specific feeds
v3.0.3 (4/20/22)
- Fixed stream URL updating
v3.0.2 (4/18/22)
- Bot now shows main command list when mentioned
- Changed bot's status to '/help' rather than 'nws!help'
v3.0.1 (4/17/22)
- Fixed national alert map index
- Fixed IEMBot setup command
- Added stations list sorting
v3.0 (4/17/22)
- Full support for slash commands
- Rewrote button logic
- Fixed alert maps
- Improved performance and response
- Added error reporting
- More precise cooldown timer
- Temporarily removed NHC features
- Temporarily paused setup for IEMBot product-specific feeds
- Other bug fixes & improvements
v2.6.18 (2/16/22)
- Fixed weather story for LOT
v2.6.17 (2/11/22)
- Fixed weather story for some WFOs
v2.6.16 (1/21/22)
- Added WSO "Pago Pago" to bot's WFO list
- Set alert map language to English
v2.6.15 (1/17/22)
- Added Wind Chill to forecast
- Added nws!weather command, like nws!forecast but only shows Current Conditions
- Fixed issue with adding stations
- Fixed issue where alert maps won't load when there are no active alerts
v2.6.14 (1/15/22)
- Fixed issue with updating broken stream URLs
v2.6.13 (12/09/21)
- Fixed issue with weather stories for LOT
v2.6.12 (9/12/21)
- Fixed issue with certain station callsigns
- Fixed issue with images not sending
v2.6.11 (8/30/21)
- Added button to report stream errors
- Added Transmitter Propagation link to NWR streams
v2.6.10.1 (8/29/21)
- Fixed help command
v2.6.10 (8/19/21)
- Added images for Special Weather Statements
v2.6.9 (8/18/21)
- Added SPC, WPC, and NHC IEMBot feeds
- Added product-specific IEMBot feeds
- Added images for certain products posted through the IEMBot feed, which is enabled by default
- Fixed bug where all filters would be marked 'Excluded' when modifying IEMBot feeds
- Fixed issue with buttons during IEMBot setup process
- Other bug fixes and improvements
v2.6.8 (8/07/21)
- Optimized database connections
v2.6.7 (7/27/21)
- When adding streams, the bot now checks a public stream info database and pulls location/stream data from there if available, which for a lot of AM/FM stations, will no longer require input from the user.
v2.6.6 (7/15/21)
- Significantly reduced bandwidth usage for polling IEMBot feeds (previously used on average 200 GB per day)
- Decreased time it takes to send IEMBot messages
v2.6.5 (7/14/21)
- Added a Local Storm Reports only feed for the IEMBot feature
v2.6.4 (7/14/21)
- Allows modification of the IEMBot setup when a user attempts to add another feed from the same WFO
v2.6.3 (7/13/21)
- Added filters to the IEMBot auto-posting (can be set up in the IEMBot setup process)
- Prevents users from clicking the Play/Stop buttons if they are not in the same voice channel as NWS Bot
v2.6.2 (7/13/21)
- Fixed bug where the bot's streaming functions would fail occasionally (unable to join or disconnect)
v2.6.1 (7/12/21)
- Optimized IEMBot auto-posting for performance
- Fixed lyrics feature
- Minor changes for quality
v2.6 (7/11/21)
- Added IEMBot auto-posting (beta)
v2.5.15 (7/07/21)
- Fixed error message when the bot tries to join a voice channel it cannot access
v2.5.14 (7/07/21)
- More specific error message when adding a non-iHeartMedia station using an iHeart.com link
- Fixed adding some iHeartRadio stations
v2.5.13 (7/01/21)
- Improved reliability for buttons
v2.5.12 (7/01/21)
- Changed most of the plaintext messages to embeds
- Added Miscellaneous Commands
- Various bug fixes and improvements
v2.5.11 (6/29/21)
- Fixed certain weather forecast office products not sending
- Added severe weather outlooks (state and national) to the SPC command
v2.5.10 (6/27/21)
- Added ability to fetch forecast using city and state instead of just zip code
v2.5.9 (6/26/21)
- Fixed bug where bot would randomly crash
- Fixed bug when streaming radio stations: bot gets stuck at "Joining" message
v2.5.8 (6/20/21)
- Improved performance for the alert map index (especially for the national alert map)
v2.5.7 (6/16/21)
- Stop button for streams is now more reliable
v2.5.6 (6/15/21)
- Added index for the national alert map
v2.5.5 (6/13/21)
- Fixed a bug that stops the NWS Bot stream when a user leaves a voice channel the bot is not currently in
- Fixed a bug that causes internal errors when trying to fix/update a stream URL
v2.5.4 (6/06/21)
- Fixed weather stories for Chicago (LOT). Use the command 'nws!suggest [message]' if you would like weather stories to be fixed for your local WFO.
v2.5.3
- Improved reliability and readability for text products
v2.5.2
- Added index for alert maps
v2.5.1
- Improved performance for buttons
v2.5
- Added first set of buttons for NWS Bot's streaming features. Allows for quick switching between stations
v2.4.14
- NWS Bot's server-specific settings are now cleared from the database when it is removed from that server
v2.4.13
- Reduced command cooldown times
v2.4.12
- NWR streams now use mono/single-channel audio
- Volume is now correct for NWR streams when 24/7 mode is enabled
v2.4.10
- Increased volume by 400% for NWR streams
v2.4.9
- Bot will always respond to the command 'nws!help' regardless of server-specific prefix
v2.4.8
- Allow public access to the stats command (nws!stats)
v2.4.7
- Fixed radar images not updating
v2.4.5
- Decreased loading time to resume stream by 50% while 24/7 Mode is enabled
v2.4.4
- Fixed volume of stream to be less deafening (25% of original volume)
v2.4.3
- Improvements to the radar command
- Improved loading messages for streaming
- Radar list
- Fixes and improvements to 24/7 Mode
- WFO list moved to wfo command (wfolist command will no longer work)
v2.4.2
- Fixed bug with suggestions not going through correctly - even if it gave the 'Successful' message
- Added check to ensure WFO is specified when requesting a WFO product
- Other quality improvements
v2.4.1
- Partial support for stage channels
v2.4
- Improvements to 24/7 Mode
-- Helps prevent stream from randomly stopping when alone in the voice channel
-- Saves bandwidth and resources
v2.3
- 24/7 Mode
v2.2
- Command cooldown
- You can now use the nws!np or nws!lyrics command without specifying a station ID (will use the last streamed station)
v2.1
- Song lyrics for iHeartRadio stations
v2.0
- Re-write of the bot in discord.py's commands framework
- Easier handling of command arguments
- Other bug fixes and feature improvements