NOAA Reports Query

nking · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:59 am

I've just noticed that my precipitation numbers differ between the Monthly and Annual reports. I haven’t checked them all and it may well only be that my data is causing the anomaly. Example below, however, it may be easier to see the reports on my site page

Precipitation (mm)

Dep. Max Days of Rain
From Obs. Over
YR MO Total Norm Day Date 0.3 6.3 25.0
---------------------------------------------
11 1 124.8 62.3 24.6 17 15 8 0
11 2 76.8 36.2 17.7 10 15 3 0
11 3 18.6 -29.1 6.3 18 5 1 0
11 4 2.1 -45.5 1.2 30 2 0 0
11 5 17.1 -34.0 6.3 7 6 1 0
11 6 125.4 73.8 26.1 12 18 9 1
11 7 54.3 14.7 14.7 16 10 3 0
11 8 64.2 14.8 27.6 4 9 4 1
11 9 48.3 -12.9 22.2 6 9 2 0
11 10 24.9 -46.3 6.9 18 9 1 0
11 11 40.8 -19.5 10.5 3 12 2 0
11 12 102.0 37.5 33.6 12 8 5 1
---------------------------------------------
699.3 52.0 33.6 Dec 118 39 3

Nov
Max Rain: 10.5 on day 3
Days of Rain: 19 (> 0.3 mm) 2 (> 6.3 mm) 0 (> 25.0 mm)
Dec
Max Rain: 33.6 on day 12
Days of Rain: 9 (> 0.3 mm) 5 (> 6.3 mm) 1 (> 25.0 mm)

steve · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:22 am

The monthly one is (correctly) doing ">=" but the annual one does ">". I'll fix it.

nking · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:00 pm

I don't know if this is connected but when I generate my Dec 2010 report for highest rain I get Max Rain: 15.6 on day 4 but generating the Annual report for 2010 I get 33.6 day 12 which just so happens to be from 2011. The 2010 annual report I uploaded (few weeks ago) is correct.

steve · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:19 pm

Sack the beta testers, that's what I say.

nking · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:27 pm

steve wrote:

Sack the beta testers, that's what I say.

I'll try harder in future, honest gov...... :lol:

RayProudfoot · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:06 am

Steve,

I've updated Cumulus to the latest version and regenerated all my reports. I have a question regarding the report itself.

It states Days of Rain: 18 (> 0.01 in) 6 (> 0.10 in) 0 (> 1.00 in) which suggests a day where 0.01" was recorded would not be included in the count. But if you look at my Nov 2011 report you'll see that 0.01 days are included in the total of 18.

I have set my rain trigger point to 0.01 rather than zero to take account of dew collection. Does the NOAA report have to include all rainfall or only that above the trigger point?

I notice in an earlier message you said the monthly one was correctly doing "=>" but the display still only shows ">" for all three rainfall stats. Is the NOAA requirements > or => ?

steve · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:37 am

The display says ">" but the calculation is ">=" (as in the help). This is what Weatherlink does and I copied that.

RayProudfoot · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:50 am

Fair enough. As a fellow programmer you'll appreciate there is a big difference between => and >.

I'll do some searching and ask questions elsewhere to try to ascertain which is correct.

steve · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:34 pm

This is interesting, on Ken True's site: http://saratoga-weather.org/NOAA-reports.php
His report is produced by WL 5.8.3. He has one day this month with 0.01 in rain, and 1 day with 0.02 in rain. But yet:

Days of Rain: 1 (>.01 in) 0 (>.1 in) 0 (>1 in)

So it's actually doing what it says it's doing. Perhaps Davis decided it was a bug and fixed it. Or perhaps it's because of conversions from in to mm. My tests with WL were with mm.

The problem with these reports is that there doesn't seem to be a definition anywhere.

RayProudfoot · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:46 pm

Fortunately I also have 5.8.3 and after running the Nov '11 report it returns 11 > 0.01; 6 > 0.1 which is correct.

I use inches so the conversion from mm seems unlikely to be the reason. Are you using 5.9 or later? If so does that match what you're doing with Cumulus?

I agree that finding a definition is difficult. I have posted the question on the WeatherLink forum here. I'm hopeful someone will know the answer.

steve · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:49 pm

RayProudfoot wrote:

I use inches so the conversion from mm seems unlikely to be the reason.

It's the other way around. The station's 'native' unit (being American) is inches. WL has to convert to mm for people who use mm.

Quote:

Are you using 5.9 or later? If so does that match what you're doing with Cumulus?

I don't currently have WL installed but I am now installing 5.9.3...

steve · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:50 pm

steve wrote:

I don't currently have WL installed but I am now installing 5.9.3...

... or not. The download is only an upgrade, so I'm going to have to find my original software. Grrr.

steve · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:08 pm

I installed WL 5.7, downloaded the logger data and produced a NOAA report for this month. It says it's doing ">.2mm" but it actually does ">=.2mm". I then upgraded to 5.9.3. It does the same.

RayProudfoot · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:09 pm

Interesting... In the Help for generating NOAA reports in 5.8.3 it states...

Days of Rain
The number of days on which rainfall exceeded 0.01" (0.2 mm), 0.1" (2 mm), or 1" (20 mm) is displayed.

It will be interesting to see what the help for 5.9.3 says assuming you can find your original software.

steve · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:14 pm

It looks to me like it's a bug in WL when handling mm and they really do intend it to be ">" not ">=". It's easy enough to change Cumulus, but it would still be nice to get an official definition. They are called 'NOAA-style' reports, but I have so far failed to find anything about them on the NOAA web site.

	It is currently Fri May 24, 2013 10:26 am
Please click here before posting. Help me to help you!
Useful Links: Cumulus FAQ • Enhancement requests • Wiki (documentation)
Please put your approximate location into your profile
Add your web site to the Cumulus user map
Vantage Pro2 users with firmware 3.00 should upgrade to fw 3.12 and Cumulus 1.9.4
Latest Cumulus release v1.9.3 (build 1059) - Feb 09 2013 Latest Cumulus beta v1.9.4 build 1077 - May 23 2013 --> Latest Cumulus Realtime v1.0.0.5 - Sep 05 2009

Sandaysoft

NOAA Reports Query

Who is online