Blog

Category: Site Updates

Radar Changes

at 1:54 PM by John W.

The National Weather Service has changed the method radar imagery is delivered. Unfortunately, that means, for the indefinite future, we will not be able to feature a static radar image on the home page.

For the time being, we offer two radar options: Weather Underground’s animated radar and Dark Sky’s static radar. These are available in the “Enhanced Radar” selector immediately beneath the quick forecast icons. There may come a time when these alternatives also cease to function.

We are searching out other possibilities for radar imagery. Please bear with us as this is beyond our control. Thank you!

Posted in Radar, Site Updates

New Rain Calibration Active

at 10:52 AM by John W.

You may have noticed that at times rainfall totals in the Almanac section or History page suddenly shift, usually downward. That’s because the automatic rain gauge runs a little wet. Oftentimes, I circle back and correct the amount with what I’ve measured in the manual gauge (~ 6′ away and 3′ lower).

Well, through the wonders of technology (a.k.a. Microsoft Excel), I was able to finally calculate the error and program a correction for it. Over the last 12″ of rainfall, it’s a pretty consistent 4-8% overage. It averages out to +6.5%. So I am subtracting that from realtime readings now. I’ll keep an eye on it to see if it changes over time.

For small events, it may not have any effect whatsoever. But in larger rain storms, it should allow for fewer corrections and, thus, less confusion.

Posted in Equipment, Site Updates

Radar Maintenance Until 3 PM 7/1

at 10:13 AM by John W.

The radar is down until approximately 3 PM on Wednesday July 1st for maintenance.

Be aware that starting Monday July 13th the radar will be down for approximately 2 weeks. Technicians will be swapping out the pedestal. See the NWS blog article for more information.

Posted in Equipment, Site Updates

Instrument Calibrations

at 10:31 AM by John W.

As noted in the about page, I regularly check our sensors to be sure they are within specifications. Over the last couple weeks I have been conducting tests.

Temperature was right on. That’s typical, as our sensor is pretty bulletproof. I have a platinum RTD digital thermometer that’s accurate to within 0.1° F (best to check on a cloudy, windy night to eliminate radiation as a factor). I also have a laboratory-grade aspirated psychrometer with a dry bulb thermometer that’s extremely accurate. It’s analog, so the biggest challenge is reading between the lines. But my tests show the station’s thermal sensor is within 0.5° during the day which is quite good. There’s also a backup sensor on site as well. At night or on cloudy/rainy days, the two sensors are normally within 0.2° F. During sunny days, height (7 ft vs 21 ft) and shielding differences (active vs passive ventilation) can frequently lead to 1° differences in either direction. 2-3° differences are not out of the question when it’s particularly calm and sunny.

Continue reading “Instrument Calibrations”

Posted in Education, Equipment, News, Site Updates

Recent Site Changes

at 10:48 AM by John W.

Earlier this week I removed the cloud icons that formed the main navigation links throughout the site. This design methodology had passed its shelf life. It also limited the font size of the embedded text. By deploying more generic buttons I was able to change its font type & size. This should make navigation clearer & easier to use.

In the weather history section, you can now click on each of the 24 hour graphs at the top for a much larger, more detailed version of the image. These images are not straight duplicates of the data in the smaller graphs and contain some custom “enhancements”. For instance, the detailed dew point and humidity graphs contain corrected & smoothed values (rolling 5 minute averages to prevent readings from jumping around too much when the air is unstable). The software that connects the weather station to the website cannot correct for sensor errors in real time. I do that immediately after the reading is taken. Then I send the corrected values to the site (current conditions, history tables). Unfortunately the smaller graphs are generated before I can access them. Note that the larger dew point and humidity graphs are still “initializing” which means that some of the data from yesterday is missing. This will correct itself by about 8 PM Saturday evening.

I also fixed a small bug whereby if you had selected metric units in the page settings of the City page (home page) AND you also selected unrounded temperatures you would only see rounded temperatures.

Posted in News, Site Updates
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