Elevation data on Wunderground - way off

[Indigo Weather]

When I first signed to upload data to Weather Underground I noticed that the elevation for Wellington, FL (33414) was listed as 33ft. I wondered where their elevation data came from because nowhere in Wellington exceeds 17 ft. amsl. When I looked at other existing area PWS and noted that two out of three were also way too high. I initially set my station at 33ft. (the apparent default elevation for Wellington, FL) until I had a chance verify my elevation with the South Florida Water Management District digital elevation maps. I also consulted the USGS quad maps of my area. My true elevation is 16 ft. amsl. so I updated my settings and noticed that as soon as I changed my settings, my feed to Wunderground ceased. I just sent them a note to see if they will reinstate my data feed.

Beyond my own situation, this is a bit of a concern to me though because if I pick random towns on Wunderground or member PWS in South Florida, most of the elevation data is much too high and out-of-wack. Has anyone else notice this?

[DaculaWeather]

I wonder if they are reporting the height above sea level PLUS the height of their station? I didn't bother adding the height of my weather station to my height settings, but at 1040 feet it wouldn't make much difference like at would at 16 feet!

[Indigo Weather]

Yes, I wondered about the the same thing as I was truly puzzled by the strange values people were listing as their elevation. Could it be that they were adding the height of their PWS...however, when I thought about it further, a single PWS can have different elevations depending on whether you measure it from the highest point (anemometer), from the rain gauge , or from another sensor. And, this still would not account for how Weather Underground lists the elevation of different places, as one would think they are referencing some official or verified source, right?

Just for fun I started looking at the elevations Wunderground.com lists for various large cities in South Florida and was shocked: Palm Beach, FL = 30 ft., Boca Raton, FL = 56 ft., Fort Lauderdale, FL = 39 ft., Key Largo, FL = 30 ft., and Key West, FL = 0 ft. The funniest thing is that the elevation for Key West is the closest to actual. Lol.   

[jay_hoehn]

Seems if the elevation of Key West is 0 feet then everyone would be walking around in a puddle.

Jay

[kaymann]

Since elevation is most important for BP it would seem elevation of the console is what is most important....

[SlowModem]

Since elevation is most important for BP it would seem elevation of the console is what is most important....

Yep! 

[Indigo Weather]

Yes, this makes good sense. I will update my elevation accordingly.

As for the comment on Key West, we often are walking around in puddles in Southeast Florida, especially in the summer and not just because we are low elevation. Generally high water tables, flat terrain and intense rain events all conspire to make for slow drainage of storm water.

[ocala]

I initially set mine at 75ft for the Ocala area and it's still the same.
It's odd that yours is off.

[Indigo Weather]

Weather Underground got back to me, me making a change to my elevation data had nothing to do with the feed. Apparently in the process of editing my information on Weatherlink, the oprtion box to upload to Weather Underground became unchecked, so it was an easy fix to re-check this and save the settings again.

So, you can input whatever elevation you believe is most accurate, but there is no verification that is done on their end to ensure this is information is correct.

Further, there seems to be no direction on whether to list the elevation of your location, or the elevation of your location + the elevation of your console. I have opted for the latter.