Topic: Rain Gauge Only

[Engineer1]

Hi, Im particularly interested in logging rainfall intensity and duration and currently have the Netamo rain gauge. Unfortunately the Netatmo gauge only saves the readings in the app in 30 minute increments.

So I'm really looking for a rain gauge that takes a reading every minute, and logs that somewhere online. Can you recommend anything?

Do most of the weather stations utilise Wunderground to save the readings or do the hardware manufacturers have their own app or servers?


Im in the UK. Thanks.

[Meteorology fan]

Take a look at this rain gauge and such a set:

https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/gw2000
https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/wh40
https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/wh40-heightening-block

[Engineer1]

Thanks for the reply. It looks the sort of thing i was after but the spec suggests it logs the rainfall every hour, I ideally need every 1 or 2 minutes (or at worse every 5 minutes).

[BoDuke]

The WH40 rain sensor reports to the GW2000 gateway every 49 seconds.  The granularity of the data you view depends on what app or service you send the data to.  The Ecowitt WSView+ app will show the most current data if you're on the same WiFi network as the gateway and if you use the free ecowitt.net service along with the Ecowitt app, it will show you probably very close to the current data (within a minute or so) no matter where you are as long as you have an internet connection.

[Engineer1]

Thanks, that sounds ideal.

Where is the information logged? Because Im interested in rainfall duration and intensity i would need download the data to enable me to form some graphs. This data would ideally be stored in 1 minute increments.

I've tried to take a look at the ecowitt.net output, but cannot find an example.

As a side note, where people connect their stations to Wunderground, does Wundaground save the data on their own servers by pinging the station at a set interval?

[BoDuke]

In the instance of using a GW2000 and a WH40, you would configure the GW2000 gateway to send the data to weather services like ecowitt.net and Wunderground at set intervals.  Others are available although I have not used any beyond ecowitt.net (and ambientweather.net for my Ambient Weather equipment).  There may be limits on how frequent the services accept data and on how much data they store.  You can access your ecowitt.net data via their API:  https://api.ecowitt.net/

Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can see any of the public ecowitt.net weather stations without registering for an account.  If you did register, you can look at the map and see what the dashboards look like.

If you're wanting to look at the data, log/store it locally, and graph it, you can use something like WeeWX or even create your own logging and database system.  There are other options, too, I'm just personally not familiar with their capabilities.

[Engineer1]

I've just registered to the EcoWitt.net website and reviewing the local stations on the Weathermap this looks exactly what i need! Thanks for your help.

[Engineer1]

Sorry just another quick question.

Is the rain gauge included in the Ecowitt WS69 the same as the WH40 tipping bucket rain gauge?

[BoDuke]

The rain gauge on the WS69 sensor array is not the same as the standalone WH40.  They are both tipping buckets but the WS69 is smaller in diameter and therefore has a steeper slope in the funnel as compared with the WH40.  The flatness of the WH40 funnel can result in rain splashing out and not getting measured so that's the reason for the experimental extension ("heightening block").  Note that the extension requires the bird spike kit which I recommend to guard against birds sitting on the funnel anyway.

I have an Ambient Weather array which is similar to the WS69 and am happy with the accuracy but I'm not a meteorologist.  One advantage of the WS69 is the solar panel which means you may be able to go for years without replacing the backup batteries.

[Engineer1]

Thanks, it sounds like its probably worth going for the WS69 with the bird spikes then i can just get rid of my Netamo kit entirely.

That said if the WH40 is a larger bucket perhaps that would be better for more accurate rainfall measuring. Is the addon part of the bird spike or another addition that attaches to that part?

[BoDuke]

The larger diameter funnel should be more accurate in theory but there are limits to how accurate a tipping spoon rain gauge can only be due to rainfall rates, wind, etc.  The electronics and firmware are designed to compensate for the limitations but of course they aren't perfect.

The WH40 heightening block is separate from the bird spike kit.  You can see all of the WH40 accessories here:
https://shop.ecowitt.com/collections/accessories-for-wh40

The WS69 accessories are here:
https://shop.ecowitt.com/collections/accessories-for-ws69