Author Topic: Weather tracking  (Read 2075 times)

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Offline Jáchym

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Weather tracking
« on: February 11, 2017, 06:27:23 PM »
Hi guys,

I just thought this would be an interesting question to ask :D Let's see who has the longest series of weather measurements :D

So, the question is:
How long have you been tracking the weather?
 a) electronically - i.e. using an automated PWS, which logs the data at relatively short intervals, does not necessarily mean it had to be available online
 b) manually - in case you tracked weather even before by simply looking at a thermometer and writing down the values

Just two conditions:
- the series must be continuous - i.e. no gaps (a week or two due to faulty sensor or vacation is fine of course, but not like several months/years)
- at least one measurement/day

I will start :D

Manually: 2009-2011 - daily min/max temperature, humidity,pressure - using a digital PWS with min/max memory and conditions logged daily at midnight
Electronically: Jan 1, 2012 - now - in 5min intervals, using WH1080 and Meteobridge (2014-2015 data available at meteopage.com, since Jun 2015 data available at meteotemplate.com (the demo)

My total continuous series is therefore now 7yrs and 1 month, automatic 5 yrs and 1 month
« Last Edit: February 11, 2017, 06:32:13 PM by Jáchym »

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2017, 06:55:01 PM »
The VP2's 10 this summer. Online at 5 minute increments around 2011.

Offline waiukuweather

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2017, 06:58:58 PM »
My wunderground data starts September 2000
it was a bit hap hazard at that time as I was one of the original Beta testers for Wunderground data :)

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2017, 07:05:08 PM »
I was one of the original Beta testers for Wunderground data :)
Well that explains it....




 :-P

Offline waiukuweather

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2017, 07:08:27 PM »
and to prove it, lol
https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IFRANKLI1#history/s20000913/e20001014/mmonth
cool that wunderground still have that original beta test send data after all these years :)

regular updates started Nov 14 that year

oh and I used to record Max/min temperatures and rain totals when I was at school in the mid 80's
« Last Edit: February 11, 2017, 07:15:05 PM by waiukuweather »

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2017, 07:13:33 PM »
Was it sent by WD Build 1? :D

Offline waiukuweather

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2017, 07:15:30 PM »
yes, by the very first version of WD :)

Offline ocala

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2017, 08:45:02 AM »
Electronically about December of 2003.
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Offline PaulMy

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2017, 10:11:21 AM »
July 2008, not an old timer yet!

I know there are many people who have tracked weather data for many years by hand, and some of those can be useful.
I live in a small village and about 25 years ago it was planned to bring in a municipal water system instead of everyone using their own private wells - mostly shallow wells (we have an excellent unlimited ground water source but because of sandy soil, and farming and homeowner fertilizing and wastewater practices the water table was getting high in nitrates)  I was the project manager for our municipal government and we had the engineers do the necessary studies and design.  This included the de-watering of the whole village (due to normally high water table) to be able to install the water and sewer lines.  To assist in their engineering work and how to cope with temporary de-watering and getting full water supply back to residents the engineers were looking for any local data.  I knew of an old local farmer who had been logging weather, including rain and the water level in his watering wells for decades.  The engineers used this handwritten data for their analysis and design.  The project was completed successfully and with the various data available, including the old farmer's nearby data, the engineers were able to design a temporary water supply for residents who did not have quick recovery of their well.  I don't expect my data collection to be used for large engineering projects, but it is used by local snow plowing contractors to be aware of snow and potential ice conditions in our village for their plowing and ice control scheduling.

Paul

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2017, 10:29:33 AM »
Interesting Paul, thanks for sharing!

That was exactly one of the reasons I started developing Meteotemplate.... because I live in a very large city (half a million people), there are two professional stations nearby (one at our institute and one at the airport) and my station is just a very cheap one so I knew that the data has no real use and no-one was visiting my site apart from me... Now I feel like MT is being used by people who find it much more useful to show their data on the web (some MT users are for example fire fighters, farmers etc.) and even my station now has a use :D It powers the MT Demo site :D And even though the data is not 100% accurate, it is sort of realistic so ok for demonstration purposes.

Offline floodcaster

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2017, 11:57:22 AM »
Interesting topic. Began manual daily entries in 1997 (and continue to this day) and began recording automated data since mid 1999. Started with the venerable Davis WMII then a non-FARS VP2+ and now a FARS VP2+.

One of my goals is to start to compile some stats from my weather data. Stephen Burt's book "The Weather Observer's Handbook" really gave me some great ideas. Now I just need to implement them.  ;)
Bill


Offline waiukuweather

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2017, 12:41:39 PM »
my Dad recorded daily rain totals starting in the 1950's (he was a farmer)
which I managed to get from his diary's and entetered electronicly to form a good climate rain database
and his grand mother jotted down the daily weather in her diary going back 100 years :)

Offline Scalphunter

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2017, 01:58:56 PM »
I have 50 years of data all recorded manually on calendars that either I or the wife recorded daily as what the weather was in our area. Temps,wind,and rain fall. Also if snow and how much. Pretty sure this is of no interest other then to myself.

Offline ocala

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #13 on: February 12, 2017, 04:54:49 PM »
I have 50 years of data all recorded manually on calendars that either I or the wife recorded daily as what the weather was in our area. Temps,wind,and rain fall. Also if snow and how much. Pretty sure this is of no interest other then to myself.
50 years is impressive John.
On some of these long cold nights you should start transferring it to a database.
It would be interesting to see that data in graph form.
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Online Farmtalk

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #14 on: February 12, 2017, 05:00:13 PM »
I have 50 years of data all recorded manually on calendars that either I or the wife recorded daily as what the weather was in our area. Temps,wind,and rain fall. Also if snow and how much. Pretty sure this is of no interest other then to myself.
50 years is impressive John.
On some of these long cold nights you should start transferring it to a database.
It would be interesting to see that data in graph form.

I agree, I mean I think anyone who has several years worth of data should transfer it to a database. I'm always a fan of seeing patterns emerge and disappear.  :-)
Joe Fitzwater
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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #15 on: February 12, 2017, 05:29:07 PM »
I have 50 years of data all recorded manually on calendars that either I or the wife recorded daily as what the weather was in our area. Temps,wind,and rain fall. Also if snow and how much. Pretty sure this is of no interest other then to myself.

Wow! Do you have it available electronically in some spreadsheet or just on a paper?

Offline Scalphunter

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #16 on: February 12, 2017, 08:17:47 PM »
Still on the calendars that are packed away. I also sun spots count  on years  when cycle was high.  mainly for  6m vhf work.

but there is an correlation to the  spots and  weather mostly rain.

John

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather tracking
« Reply #17 on: February 12, 2017, 08:27:13 PM »
Still on the calendars that are packed away. I also sun spots count  on years  when cycle was high.  mainly for  6m vhf work.

but there is an correlation to the  spots and  weather mostly rain.

John

Well I doubt anyone is going to beat you on this. 50 yrs of data, that really is an achievement and shows true passion for weather John

 

anything