Author Topic: Goldstar Stations  (Read 55088 times)

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Offline Evening thunder

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #50 on: August 15, 2016, 05:47:29 AM »
I've come to the conclusion that WU's quality control is a bit rubbish.

My station not infrequently gets removed from the map (VP2 with SHT31 sensor), because my valley location means we can be a few degrees colder at night, indeed the other night it was removed when a nearby station only one degree C warmer was still showing.

Yet at the same time, various stations reading several degrees high by day or night, such as slow responding/poorly sited Netatmos, stay on the map.

A station in the next county (Cornwall) hasn't reached 10C in 5 days.. yet it is gold star rating! Our summer may be
bad sometimes but not that bad! it's been reaching the low 20's around that site.
This is about the warmest it's been (oddly at night) with about the smallest difference:
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Also they apparently remove 'inaccurate' stations from the map, yet a 36C and -46C station is allowed?  :-P

(as I write this Wundermap starts being strange, and changes to Farenheight and the settings section to change it back is blank, but that is probably more familiar for many on here anyway and you get the idea)
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Yes, exactly, I mentioned this before in a different thread a while ago.

The problem is that they base accuracy on nearby stations so since many more are likely to have NetAtmo than Davis, you can guess which one will be interpreted as inaccurate if all the other ones show the same nonsense... and with regards to filtering out nonsense.... no comments (not long ago one guy here had a dew point of 1200 degrees.... and WU showed it as absolutely normal value...)

Indeed it's that issue with me, combined with topography and nearby coastline giving microclimate effects (not that that's unusual around the world).

Just another illustration of how poor the QC is from a couple days ago.. both the 10C and 28C (50 and 83F) stations were and still are 'gold star'  ](*,)
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Then there's this station that only had 3 days data (so not sure how it could have passed their QC for 5 consecutive days  :? ), with flat lining temperature at times (as well as a sudden pressure change of 10mb), and it even says in the status "In testing: Wind speed may be dodgy!"
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but, it is still 'goldstar'  =D>

« Last Edit: August 15, 2016, 05:50:38 AM by Evening thunder »

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #51 on: August 15, 2016, 07:37:08 AM »
I have one.  Whoopie. Is this graded on a scale of A-F 0-8, 0-6, 0-4?

As you can get I am getting in school mode. Yuck.  I have 4 days of inservice next week. Two days the next week, and 4 days the last of August. Then school.

You should come to FL. They started school last week!

Offline tbrasel

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #52 on: August 15, 2016, 09:23:10 AM »
I have one.  Whoopie. Is this graded on a scale of A-F 0-8, 0-6, 0-4?

As you can get I am getting in school mode. Yuck.  I have 4 days of inservice next week. Two days the next week, and 4 days the last of August. Then school.

You should come to FL. They started school last week!

And northwest Arkansas schools opened today & I agree, Whoopie...
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Offline chief-david

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #53 on: August 15, 2016, 04:34:16 PM »
off topic here: We do not start school becuase the state fair goes until Labor Day and resort owners want cheap labor as long as possible-through the Labor Day weekend. They are afraid that if school starts before LD-no one will rent space over the weekend.

Nothing like the tourist industry regulating when school starts.  Some rural schools have started to  apply for early starts.  Metro schools will not.



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Offline miraculon

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #54 on: August 15, 2016, 05:09:18 PM »
I just checked a neighboring station. This station (KMIROGER5) has a dead wind bird and a non-functional rain gauge. The data uploads are kind of sketchy too. Maybe what does still work is "high quality".

"Gold Star" Ha!

Greg H.


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Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #55 on: August 15, 2016, 06:55:09 PM »
I just checked a neighboring station. This station (KMIROGER5) has a dead wind bird and a non-functional rain gauge. The data uploads are kind of sketchy too. Maybe what does still work is "high quality".

"Gold Star" Ha!

Greg H.

I'm guessing that is a Bloomsky station. No wind or rain but it does have UV.

Offline miraculon

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #56 on: August 15, 2016, 07:29:52 PM »
I just checked a neighboring station. This station (KMIROGER5) has a dead wind bird and a non-functional rain gauge. The data uploads are kind of sketchy too. Maybe what does still work is "high quality".

"Gold Star" Ha!

Greg H.

I'm guessing that is a Bloomsky station. No wind or rain but it does have UV.

There is a NetAtmo at KMIROGER8, but I think that KMIROGER5 is an older set. It definitely has a wind vane and anemometer. It used to work, but appears to have failed. It's not a Davis, Acu-Rite, Bloomsky or any of the newer "swoopy-looking" Wx stations.  :grin:

Greg H.


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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #57 on: August 15, 2016, 11:23:52 PM »
Some slides from a wunderground presentation.

https://ams.confex.com/ams/GroundUp/recordingredirect.cgi/id/33229

"Gold Star" is mentioned a couple of times, but it still leaves you wanting.

Maybe this will help someone find more useful information.


Offline Jáchym

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Goldstar Stations - mystery "solved"
« Reply #58 on: August 16, 2016, 05:22:59 AM »
OK guys, mystery solved....

So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this thread 2 days ago, my station is very badly sited and in addition it is a very cheap, poor quality model. I am well aware of this, not much I can do about it and I use it primarily for testing purposes for my template.

The data is actually quite accurate at night and in the winter and overcast weather - however - as soon as the Sun shines on it, the temperature goes crazy, very often over 5 or even more degrees C above what it should be.

In the last few days, we had exactly weather like this - my station was showing way too high temperature during the day, definitely not accurate, same goes for humidity.

On the other hand, I do have relatively very stable connection and almost 0 gaps. However, just this Friday the batteries completely drained, this happens about once a year. Before I got access to the station to change it, it was offline for 3 hours.

Just this Saturday they introduced this goldstar feature and I mentioned this and said - lets wait till Tuesday... my station was NOT a goldstar station. Since then, my station has been measuring inaccurate temperature every day. And, today... after 5 days since that incident, I curiously looked at WU. You can see the result below...



Conclusion: Data Quality, as WU sees it, means "station that reports consistently with no gaps in data, regardless of "what" it actually reports". If you have very good quality data and not that good connection (ie. occasional gaps), your station will not be viewed by WU as "good quality". If you buy a station for 10 bucks, have temperature going crazy as soon as the Sun shines on it, have inconsistent wind values etc etc... but good connection and no gaps in data, based on WU, your station is of good quality....

Make your own opinion about "quality of WU", I personally do not award it a "goldstar"
« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 05:24:50 AM by Jáchym »

Offline floodcaster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #59 on: August 16, 2016, 06:57:47 AM »
I'm not so sure about that Jachym. I haven't missed any uploads (that I can tell) in a long time and I'm a fanatic about proper siting and in making sure I'm providing the best possible data to those entities that I provide my data to, but have yet to receive that coveted Gold Star.  ;) I have noticed in the past during evenings with strong radiational cooling that my FARS will cool things down much quicker than surrounding non-FARS stations and my site drops off the map temporarily. But with our recent stretch of days with higher RH, that has not been an issue. Certainly not going to lose any sleep over it. :lol:

Bill


Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #60 on: August 16, 2016, 07:06:11 AM »
My station received the gold star exactly down to an hour after 5 days elapsed since the gap.... and I just checked, there were times during the day when my station was 8°C above the nearby METAR pro-station !

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #61 on: August 16, 2016, 07:49:28 AM »
I don't believe that is it either. My Davis station has no missed any data in well over a week and it lost it's Goldstar while the Bloomsky has one.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 07:52:12 AM by hankster »

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #62 on: August 16, 2016, 08:10:51 AM »
Strange, but look, I highlighted the gap and when I first noticed the star


Offline PaulMy

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #63 on: August 16, 2016, 09:49:48 AM »
 \:D/ my IONTARIO226 (Davis) has a Gold star, hurray!
 :( my Bloomsky IONTARIO1189 does not, not even Silver or Bronze. Depressed!

The Davis/Cumulus is RapidFire, whereas the Bloomsky is now mostly updated at WU about every half hour and there has been gaps (received several notices a few days ago while we were away that it had stopped updating, and then a follow up that it had restarted to send data).

Paul

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #64 on: August 16, 2016, 10:50:51 AM »
Well, if nothing else, sure is generating traffic for WU... :roll:

 


Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #65 on: August 16, 2016, 10:52:47 AM »
Well, if nothing else, sure is generating traffic for WU... :roll:



We all know you love the WU :D

Offline Daali

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #66 on: August 16, 2016, 12:05:07 PM »
My bloomsky just got the star, while the 1400IP did not.  The bloomsky is so out of whack with temps, pressure, and UV. 

Ambient Weather 1400IP https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KGAJEFFE12
BloomSky https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KGAJEFFE13

Offline SpringHillWeather

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #67 on: August 16, 2016, 02:54:31 PM »
\:D/ my IONTARIO226 (Davis) has a Gold star, hurray!
:( my Bloomsky IONTARIO1189 does not, not even Silver or Bronze. Depressed!


Thank you Paul for the LOL !!! 

As we all figured out by now the Goldstar just means your station has been online for 5 days.  It has NOTHING to do with Accurate measurements at this time.  Whether they actually fix or tweak this along with the other issues mentioned regarding Wundermap time will tell. 

I'm just disappointed, like many others the way they are rolling out the new changes....
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Offline CW2274

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #68 on: August 16, 2016, 03:24:09 PM »
QC will never be viable until PWS's are individually scrutinized, and that's not happening. Gladestone is light years ahead of WU, and they don't get it right either. Be your own QC.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 03:29:15 PM by CW2274 »

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #69 on: August 16, 2016, 05:10:04 PM »
\:D/ my IONTARIO226 (Davis) has a Gold star, hurray!
:( my Bloomsky IONTARIO1189 does not, not even Silver or Bronze. Depressed!

As we all figured out by now the Goldstar just means your station has been online for 5 days. 

It doesn't even mean that. Mine has been up for weeks with no gaps in reporting and it lost it's goldstar. Here are my graphs for the last 7 days.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 05:24:30 PM by hankster »

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #70 on: August 16, 2016, 05:56:52 PM »
OK, maybe it was just coincidence then.... in which case I take back what I said about gaps in data and I return back to my original post about the "rand()" function in PHP :D

Offline Evening thunder

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #71 on: August 16, 2016, 07:36:24 PM »
Yeah, don't think it just means it's been online for 5 days, further up I posted an example of a station (with flat-lining temp at times) that had only been reporting for 3 days but was goldstar.

Mine was temporarily offline just over 5 days ago but has all the data through 'catchup', so I guess I'll see if anything happens soon, nothing yet.

Another example I posted before has been even more ridiculous today.. almost 20C/36F lower than all other stations yet still goldstar, however a few stations near me got removed from the map the last two evenings for perhaps being 1-2C lower than the nearest few stations and about the same temperature as stations a few miles to the NE.

It's ludicrous really, one can hope they improve this as they should, being such a big and well used site..

Offline SpringHillWeather

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #72 on: August 16, 2016, 08:08:24 PM »
\:D/ my IONTARIO226 (Davis) has a Gold star, hurray!
:( my Bloomsky IONTARIO1189 does not, not even Silver or Bronze. Depressed!

As we all figured out by now the Goldstar just means your station has been online for 5 days. 

It doesn't even mean that. Mine has been up for weeks with no gaps in reporting and it lost it's goldstar. Here are my graphs for the last 7 days.

I was just guessing and having fun since we all can't figure it out and its our Data their using....

Maybe its something like this.

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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #73 on: August 21, 2016, 09:35:26 PM »
OK.  Beat this!

I helped my brother-in-law set up his station on wunderground yesterday afternoon.

His first report to wunderground was at 2:49PM August 20th.

Today, August 21st it has a gold star!

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #74 on: August 22, 2016, 07:49:03 AM »
Today, August 21st it has a gold star!

 Maybe this is all it takes UU

Thinking I need to send over a 12 pack, both my stations have lost their "gold star".
« Last Edit: August 22, 2016, 07:51:39 AM by hankster »