Author Topic: Weather "Dunce" Award ! ! !  (Read 1010 times)

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Offline Old Tele man

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Weather "Dunce" Award ! ! !
« on: June 16, 2018, 11:07:57 PM »
Guess WHO won today's Weather "Dunce" Award(*)?

The SETUP -- It rained slowly but steadily yesterday evening and this morning and my station dutifully registered 0.01-inch amounts at roughly hourly intervals...0.08-inches for yesterday and 0.13-inches for today...for 0.21-inches total.

CLUE #1 -- The rainfall totals of ALL nearby stations were about TWICE what I showed.
CLUE #2 -- Rainfall ceased at noon, but my station was STILL registering 0.01-inch amounts at roughly hourly intervals all the way until 7:00 p.m., and the total amount was slowly, but steadily, climbing up EVEN though NO rain had occurred since noon.
CLUE #3 -- Approaching my ISS I heard a 'click' of the tipping bucket even though it'd been 7 hours since any rain fell.
CLUE #4 -- Standing on a step-stool, I look down into the rain cone and see a small LAKE of standing water!
CLUE #5 -- Some dummy "checked" the rain cone filter by just "looking" at the plastic drain filter without actually removing it to see if anything was UNDER it.

The VERDICT -- Mesquite leaves are tiny and easily FIT through the plastic cone filter openings to "clog" rain water passage down to the tipping bucket and lots of those tiny mesquite leaves will act like a partially-closed spigot, causing the backed-up water to slowly drip through for hours long after the rain event occurred!

The MORAL -- Check UNDER the cone filter for stuff before the rainy season starts!

Signed:

Yours Truly,
The Dummy  :roll:


(*) it's like the Darwin Award, only non-lethal (wink,wink)
« Last Edit: June 17, 2018, 11:03:46 PM by Old Tele man »
• SYS: Davis VP2 Vue/WL-IP & Envoy8X/WL-USB;
• DBX2 & DBX1 Precision Digital Barographs
• CWOP: DW6988 - 2 miles NNE of Cortaro, AZ
• WU - KAZTUCSO202, Countryside

Offline Mattk

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Re: Weather "Dunce" Award ! ! !
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2018, 12:30:52 AM »
Common problem and could be very easily fixed IF Davis put their mind to it.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=32511.msg343315#msg343315

Offline Old Tele man

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Re: Weather "Dunce" Award ! ! !
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2018, 12:43:58 AM »
Actually, I have the newer "add-in" Bird-Spike rain cone with the newer semi-snap-in plastic debris filter with central bird-spike; it's not the older, original, drop-in filter that originally came with the VP2 station when I bought it new back in 2012.

The filter was tightly seated -- the problem was the tiny mesquite leaves got through the slots. A smaller sieve/slotting would help, but if too small it might clog too easily.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2018, 04:59:42 PM by Old Tele man »
• SYS: Davis VP2 Vue/WL-IP & Envoy8X/WL-USB;
• DBX2 & DBX1 Precision Digital Barographs
• CWOP: DW6988 - 2 miles NNE of Cortaro, AZ
• WU - KAZTUCSO202, Countryside

Offline chief-david

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Re: Weather "Dunce" Award ! ! !
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2018, 09:08:23 AM »
Been there, done that. This year with bird poop.
Davis was not impressed

Quote
Well if there is no ladder involved, then you have no excuse for a clogged rain collector!!

Quote
Then while you are up on the roof, maybe consider mounting the rain collector and tem/hum part of the sensor suite on the ground (6' above the ground) and keep the anemometer on the roof. That will be a more NOAA-acceptable siting AND make it way easier to unclog in the future.

They didn't understand that I work at a middle school and anything within reach of a middle school kid can be destroyed.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 11:31:17 AM by chief-david »



You can't phase me-I teach Middle School.
It's not you-It's WU.

Offline Old Tele man

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Re: Weather "Dunce" Award ! ! !
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2018, 04:19:41 PM »
Been there, done that. This year with bird poop.
Davis was not impressed

Quote
Well if there is no ladder involved, then you have no excuse for a clogged rain collector!!

Quote
Then while you are up on the roof, maybe consider mounting the rain collector and tem/hum part of the sensor suite on the ground (6' above the ground) and keep the anemometer on the roof. That will be a more NOAA-acceptable siting AND make it way easier to unclog in the future.

They didn't understand that I work at a middle school and anything within reach of a middle school kid can be destroyed.

1) "Enquiring minds want to know."

2) "Exploring hands tend to destroy."
• SYS: Davis VP2 Vue/WL-IP & Envoy8X/WL-USB;
• DBX2 & DBX1 Precision Digital Barographs
• CWOP: DW6988 - 2 miles NNE of Cortaro, AZ
• WU - KAZTUCSO202, Countryside