Yearly Rain

[skysummit]

I've searched this here, and there seems to be a few topics regarding yearly rainfall totals, but none of them have helped me much.

I'm once again running VWS after switching over from WD.  I'm in the process of putting a website together using the easy templates of VWS.  I have a little over 3" of rain for the year according to WD.  However since I've just begun using VWS again, VWS does not know this. I changed the yearly total in the "Settings", "Rainfall", but that's not doing anything in regards to showing it on my display nor online.

From what I've read, you must edit VWS in many different areas when it comes to rain.  Does anyone know of the correct process to do this, or at least point me in the right direction?

[sam2004gp]

First, You need to add the 3" inches to the Total Rainfall of VWS.  To do this go to .Settings>Calibration> and enter your 3" starting rainfall total in the Offset Input Box.

Second, give VWS about 30 Seconds of "run" time then go to Settings>Rainfall and adjust the Months and Days to the proper amounts for their respective days.  While there, you may also have to remove the 3" from today's rainfall total.  Because the 3" added in the Calibration will also look like to VWS that it all happened in the last minute on this very day.  Also VWS will report your hourly rainfall rate incorrectly for the duration of about an hour until it settles down again.  But be patient it will correct itself and drop back to zero.

[skysummit]

First, You need to add the 3" inches to the Total Rainfall of VWS.  To do this go to .Settings>Calibration> and enter your 3" starting rainfall total in the Offset Input Box.

Second, give VWS about 30 Seconds of "run" time then go to Settings>Rainfall and adjust the Months and Days to the proper amounts for their respective days.  While there, you may also have to remove the 3" from today's rainfall total.  Because the 3" added in the Calibration will also look like to VWS that it all happened in the last minute on this very day.  Also VWS will report your hourly rainfall rate incorrectly for the duration of about an hour until it settles down again.  But be patient it will correct itself and drop back to zero.

Ok, makes sense. I'll go and give it a try.  I changed it last night in the Calibration section, but then I saw it also changed in the daily rainfall total so I removed it.  Like you said though....be patient  

[K6SGH]

I have had the most success in fixing the current day, monthly and yearly totals by making changes on the Vantage Pro2 console rather than trying to fix this on VWS.

TURN OFF VWS then, to change the current day's amount, touch the Rain-day button, then hit the 2nd button and hold the SET button for several seconds until the flashing stops and all the digits show up. Then simply adjust the amount to the correct amount. The Davis pdf file has the instructions for this on page 26.  (email me if you'd like a copy or can't find it on the Davis website)

Then, repeat this process using the Rain-yr button and enter the correct value.

To change the monthly amount, toggle the Rain-yr button until the MO shows up, then hit 2nd button, hold the SET button and enter the correct amount.

Next, turn back on VWS, and check the values in the Settings/Rainfall screen and adjust any previous days to the correct values.  These values show up on the Climate Reports and some of the other tags.

Next, check the values in Settings/Recall daily, monthly, yearly archive but first edit the current month you're in ie: 2011_02 for February. Adjust as necessary.

Next, in the same archive, check the individual days and adjust according.

Your rain graphs will still have showing the bad data points, but your summaries and totals will be correct. The bad data won't affect your totals as you've now corrected them.  And, as time moves forward, the bad data will disappear from the graphs.   I have found this to be a lot easier than trying to adjust the database which is a losing battle as I've never been able to effect a change in any of the totals.

Hope this helps!

--Steve