After 4 years offline, I finally did some maintenance on my La Crosse 2813 unit (mainly just battery replacement) and got it back up online. Once I started streaming my data to CWOP, my rating came back. 100% QC on all 4 checks. What does this mean? My inferior equipment can't be producing the best data, can it? There are several PWS uploading to WU in my area, but only a couple uploading to CWOP. Unfortunately, the Davis Vantage Pro 2 station about a mile from me isn't uploading to CWOP, only WU, so I cannot compare with a high-end system. I have the temp/humidity sensor in a radiation shield (from Ambient Weather) on the north side of my house. The only sun it gets is about a half hour in the morning from 8-8:30. I noticed during the day, my reading is about one degree lower than the Davis unit, but at night mine is about two degrees higher. I will always bow to the superiority of high-end units, but I also understand it is about proper siting. My anemometer is mounted on my chimney, 10 feet above the roofline, but I live in a tract housing community and my next door neighbor's two-story home obstructs a clear path of the north west. Still, my wind readings seem to be acceptable.
My MADIS is DW9278. I am pretty much a newb when it comes to weather data and only do this for fun, like most of us. Because the NOAA uses my data, I have a sense of pride in trying to be as accurate as possible with what I have and where I live. Does having 100% across the board mean that I truly have great data or are the ratings not really anything to celebrate? I like AccuWeather as my mainstream source for commercial weather data and my stats are generally close to their data, but there are a ton of sources of data. I like WU to see how my stats stack up to other local PWS, but I know some don't necessarily take it as serious as others.
Thanks for listening to me ramble on.