Topic: WU occasionally drops my station for another one to use for current conditions

[John Canfield]

I've had a weather station going for about three years here in the Texas Hill Country and for all of that time it was my PWS that would be used for current conditions.  I recently added a webcam to WU and now sometimes my station (KTXHARPE2) is not used nor even reported on the weather station list - coincidence?  Don't know but it is the only change to my setup here.

WU has my data - if you look at KTXHARPE2, the data is faithfully there every ten minutes.  My station is the closest to zip 78631, so I should be the default.  Another curious note is WU uses my webcam on the current conditions page.

I've had this happen with another weather station that I maintain in a Virginia State Park - same exact situation.  They are the closest station for their zip code, but sometimes not used.  I just checked them (Mouth of Wilson, VA) and their PWS is used for current conditions.  Go figure.

Any ideas here??

[ocala]

All I can think of is a glitch in their software that designates  geographically what location is closest to the requested city.
Sounds like something you need to bring to their attention.

[John Canfield]

Thanks for the response.  Well... I'm back to being the reporting station for zip 78631  - I wonder how long that's going to last.

Ocala - I'll guess that has some relationship as to where you're located.  I lived there for a year as a kid.  Lived in Orlando/Daytona/DeLand for 25 years.  Bailed out in 2005 for Texas - got sick and tired of hurricanes.

[ocala]

Thanks for the response.  Well... I'm back to being the reporting station for zip 78631  - I wonder how long that's going to last.

Ocala - I'll guess that has some relationship as to where you're located.  I lived there for a year as a kid.  Lived in Orlando/Daytona/DeLand for 25 years.  Bailed out in 2005 for Texas - got sick and tired of hurricanes.

Actually SE of Ocala in a little town called Candler. Left the rat race of south Florida in 99 for the much more laid back area up here.
It must be something with their software. When I checked before the Buckhorn Lake RV resort was the reporting station. Now yours is up there. Whats strange is the Mountain Home MADIS station is actually closer then the Buckhorn site.

[xykotik]

Here is a little speculation....

There are only four PWS in about a four-mile radius of me listed on WU.  When I first put my station on WU and searched by zip, someone else's station was default.  I later "tweaked" my lat/long position (stopped hiding) and suddenly, MY station was the default.  When I looked at the WU's google-map center-cross after the zip search, my station was geographically closer to it.  A couple of days ago, the "other" station was default again, but I also noticed that at the time, my WL software was down (CWOP issue) so WU may not have had as "fresh" of data from mine, and went with the other unit.

Total speculation, but maybe you and the other station are competing for the "freshest data prize."