New Metservice Your Weather Feature

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902 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1208613 5-Jan-2015 15:01

Oblivian: Just added myself to it from Kaiapoi. 15min upload, but thats all it really needs.. right :P

The local radio station here uses home stations for readouts in the morning after using the main median reads from town/airport, was surprising to hear mine used within a few days of sticking it online and sharing to Wunderground.com :)

So WoW makes it the 2nd or 3rd I contribute to now.

One issue with the default 15 minute refresh is that it takes ages for changes to show (while you are messing around fine tuning). I have Cumulus set to five minutes now. Something else I am not sure about, is whether Your Weather info can change without refreshing the page? It eventually times out and reverts to the initial zoom setting, and the data updates then, but I suspect it is not doing so in between. (Unless you have gone past your station's update period, and refresh the Your Weather page.

Trevor Dennis
Rapaura (near Blenheim)

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DS248

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#1208833 5-Jan-2015 22:37

Seems like wind direction may be an issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oidVdV6bNUQ

Video courtesy of son, also a long standing Geekzone member

Oblivian

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#1208855 5-Jan-2015 22:52

hahah thats classic.

I don't have any rain readouts atm. Spiders. So many many spiders

DS248

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#1208996 6-Jan-2015 10:05

Seems we have a problem with temperature readings for a few hours after sunrise and before sunset when there is bright sun and still conditions. Low angle sun must be heating the inner parts of the fins shielding the thermometer?

This morning the temperature reading rose rapidly from under 16°C shortly before 7am to 28°C shortly after 8am (& peaked at ~29°C around 9am). Now back to 28.4°C at 9:48am. There was a similar 'spike' in temperature reading yesterday afternoon between 6pm and 9pm (see chart. Note history pre 8am yesterday missing).

A little surprising since the shielding is light colour and seems a fairly typical design. If this is the case most other similar weather stations would be similarly affected?

DS248

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#1209008 6-Jan-2015 10:13

One thing I forgot to mention is that during the rest of the day, the recorded temperatures are consistent with those recorded by 'nearby' sites (Red Beach excepted).

Very pleasant at the moment but I doubt that it is 28°C.

It has been very still over the last couple of days, which may be a compounding factor.

TLD

902 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1209120 6-Jan-2015 12:04

DS248: One thing I forgot to mention is that during the rest of the day, the recorded temperatures are consistent with those recorded by 'nearby' sites (Red Beach excepted).

Very pleasant at the moment but I doubt that it is 28°C.

It has been very still over the last couple of days, which may be a compounding factor.

I'm guessing that the temperature sensor, together with solar cell and transmitter, is pointing north because of the solar cell? That being the case, you can't rotate that module to put the mast tube between the sun and temperature sensor. So you need some sort of weather proof perforated panel that stands 50mm or so to the east of the sensor. Ideally the panel should be non conduction, so a similar UV resistant plastic as the WS is made of.

If I was looking for that here in Blenheim, I'd go to a business called The Glass Doctor who sell all sorts of plastic as well as glass. I bought a sheet of black Plexiglass off them a while back, as a reflective base for product photographs. I bet they'd give you 150mm square for nothing out of their offcuts bin.

Not sure how you'd mount it. Possible self tapping screws into the sensor case with 25mm stand off.

Trevor Dennis
Rapaura (near Blenheim)

DS248

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#1209204 6-Jan-2015 13:24

TLD: ... temperature sensor ... is pointing north because of the solar cell?

Yes.

Clearly I will need to fit an outer solar shade. As you indicate, how to attach (aesthetically) being the main problem

TLD

902 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1209401 6-Jan-2015 17:16

DS248:
TLD: ... temperature sensor ... is pointing north because of the solar cell?

Yes.

Clearly I will need to fit an outer solar shade. As you indicate, how to attach (aesthetically) being the main problem

Keep it simple. I'd say 25mm would be plenty so long as the screen allows ample airflow.

Trevor Dennis
Rapaura (near Blenheim)

DS248

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#1209743 7-Jan-2015 10:34

I will need to screen all round (well E - N - W anyway) since have problems am & pm, and in winter will be a problem nearer midday.

I found these two discussions on the subject. I am guessing mounting the shield will be to most difficult part. Unfortunately it will be sometime before I have time to attempt this.

http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/projects/making-a-stevenson-screen/
http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/projects/making-a-stevenson-screen-using-lourve-doors/

MetServiceComms

51 posts

Master Geek

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Metservice

#1209997 7-Jan-2015 16:26

Hi all - great to see that more of you are joining up with Your Weather - thank you!

We're aware that some people have now registered with WOW but have missed out the step of using one of the WOW-compatible software packages to put their data online. Here's a link to the list of compatible software, with a quick assessment by one of our engineers of each package: http://about.metservice.com/our-company/your-weather/compatible-weather-stations-and-software/

Also letting you know that we'll be updating all those lovely new station names tomorrow - we don't receive Site Names in the current WOW API, but we are able to query them separately then bulk upload them manually. We hope that will become a thing of the past when the next version of the WOW API is released :)

Thanks for bring involved!

Jacqui Bridges

General Manager Corporate Affairs
Meteorological Service of New Zealand Ltd

TLD

902 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1210408 8-Jan-2015 10:23

Jacqu, thank you for introducing the feature. I am frankly surprised there are not more local stations online after it appeared on the TV1 News. There must be dozens of private weather stations here in Marlborough because of the vineyard frost alerts, but they are typically not going to be owned by Geeks, so would not be interested in getting a WOW account. On the other hand, I do know that some vineyard owners make their data available to others who do not have a station, and that may well be via WOW. I know someone I can ask about this, so will investigate.

Trevor Dennis
Rapaura (near Blenheim)

MetServiceComms

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Master Geek

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Metservice

#1210423 8-Jan-2015 10:54

Great, thanks TLD - we're very keen to see more rural representation of sites on Your Weather and will be publicising it through Fed Farmers and FMG in the coming weeks. It'd be very useful to hear about how observations are currently being shared so we can point farmers in helpful directions.

Kind regards
Jacqui

General Manager Corporate Affairs
Meteorological Service of New Zealand Ltd

DS248

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#1210430 8-Jan-2015 11:03

I notice in our area (Hibiscus Coast - incl Dairy Flat) there are seven stations displaying on Weather Underground, none of which are on WOW. Would be good to get those onto WOW.

MetServiceComms

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Master Geek

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Metservice

#1210446 8-Jan-2015 11:11

Absolutely would! We're looking into how we attract those people on Weather Underground to also register with WOW ... ideas welcome :)

Cheers
Jacqui

General Manager Corporate Affairs
Meteorological Service of New Zealand Ltd

frankv

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#1210489 8-Jan-2015 12:26

I am frankly surprised there are not more local stations online after it appeared on the TV1 News. There must be dozens of private weather stations here in Marlborough because of the vineyard frost alerts

I suspect that many of these weather stations are installed by a vendor rather than the owner. The vendor has no particular interest in sharing the weather information (and perhaps a commercial interest in encouraging every vineyard to have their own system

). Consequently, these systems don't have any kind of internet connectivity, and can't share their data.

Frank

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