New Ireland Weather Network. Weather Stations Wanted

CrowdedHouse

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Map filling up nicely guys. Well done.

Looks like the west is remaining unconquered though, but sure nothing new there...:D;)

I 'might' have a plan for Oranmore....but the Web side of things might be a prob,no spare PC atm and wouldn't have the faintest idea about setting up websites

Danno

It would be nice to get the West Tipp station and Tralee station up on IrelandsWeather.com

Also, there is a guy/gal near the Laois/Offaly border on WUnderground with a station here http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IOFFALYG2
And I think StratoQ has a station at Kilkenny http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IKILKENN2

Snowbie, for some reason on the homepage of IrelandsWeather.com one has to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the map. I presume it is a HTML code error or something.

Is there any of the more experienced lads on here willing to calibrate AWS for a couple of €.
After spending lots of money on equipment this year it would be a useful service to avail of where someone could call round and give the AWS a thorough checking to make sure data is as close to pure as possible. A well worthwhile service I certainly would be willing to avail of.

Deep Easterly

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

I 'might' have a plan for Oranmore....but the Web side of things might be a prob,no spare PC atm and wouldn't have the faintest idea about setting up websites

That sounds great CH, and a great location too. Will be a few months waiting to save up for my own station unfortunatly. If I can find something cheaper on ebay but nothing like a shiny new product all the same.

Would love to see a few stations set up in Mayo and Roscommon too, and along the Galway, Mayo and Donegal coastlines.

"If I was a rich man..."

Snowbie

Danno wrote: »

Snowbie, for some reason on the homepage of IrelandsWeather.com one has to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the map. I presume it is a HTML code error or something.

Seems to only happen in IE and not firefox, also on the side, set the screen to widescreen.

Is there any of the more experienced

lads on here willing to calibrate AWS for a couple of €.
After spending lots of money on equipment this year it would be a useful service to avail of where someone could call round and give the AWS a thorough checking to make sure data is as close to pure as possible. A well worthwhile service I certainly would be willing to avail of.

Is this the dewpoint thing you where talking about the other day on MSN?
I have two VP2 running side by side, one is brand new and has the 24hrs FARS(santa upgrade) while the other is less than a year old and the results are pulling in quite similar temp and humidity(these are used for dewpoint measurement). 24hrs FARS can fluctuate temp and humidity readings quite quickly under stagnant cooler conditions than the normal VP2. Early days of comparing but i see the results are very responsive with the 24hr FARS (fan aspiration) continuously drawing in air in the sensor chamber and results where very noticable when wind was light and clear conditions prevailed the other night. Temp was a good 1.5C lower than the normal VP2 with temp slowly catching up before temp rose with increasing cloud cover and inturn normal VP2 was increasing slowly to catch up.

I find the normal VP2 can trap heat and also dampness and coolness temps in the chamber and needs a slight wind to move over the sensor to bring accurate results in calm conditions. I have tried several methods but none where as accurate as the 24hrs fan aspirated radiation sheild.

I think a rule of thumb is to clean the the sheild plates regularly to allow a free movement of air into the chamber. Dirty plates affect both the temp and humidity in the chamber and thus your results can be off. I don't think your VP2 needs to be calibrated after 6 months, it is probably the most accurate of the semi professional equipment out there and will be for awhile.:)

Below is a the two VP2 side by side and the seperate Davis temp/hum sensor also. All report similar temps but the Fan aspirated VP2(on the right) reponds more quick to the temp/hum readings in certain conditions.



Temp/Hum station

Danno

I think tomorrow I will go experiment with a very slimline CPU fan and a solar panel.

kerry1960

My Weather Station ( OS WMR200 ) seems to be running fine , wind sensor/rain gauge set up but im not completely happy with the temp sensor , and will prob move it to a different location this week .

Now , heres where the problems begin , the 'Weather Display' which is working fine on my pc will not for some reason download on an older computer , it's a 8yr old HP running on Windows 98 ( out of use for the past 4 years ) , the WD seems to keep downloading permanently (hours and hours)on the thing but nothing happens

Would have been no problem running 24/7 with this if it had worked , no point in upgrading either as model too old , best bet imo will be to get my hands on some later model second hand mabye and start again .

Patience lads

Deep Easterly

After spending lots of money on equipment this year it would be a useful service to avail of where someone could call round and give the AWS a thorough checking to make sure data is as close to pure as possible. A well worthwhile service I certainly would be willing to avail of.

Danno, if you like, you can send me your sensor or whatever needs fine tuned as I can get it done in the Physics Dept in NUIG. There is an official recording station there so that is no bother. I compared my 2 sensors with official data in Galway, and although they can't be tuned, they both were with 0.2c of actual official temp.

Another way to fine tune is when there is a warm sector over the country. Temps are usually if not totally uniform over the Isle during nightime hours in the winter under such conditions, and more especially in the Autumn and Winter. Might be worth bearing in mind.

Danno

Good idea about the warm sector Pat.

I think the fan might work though. Tomorrow will tell.

Danno

Well, no joy from the fan attempt. The solar panel was not strong enough to drive a 12v CPU fan
It did give me a chance to get the shield clean, just handy as herself was washing the dishes at the same time! In the all went - excl the sensor itself of course.
The residual heat from the sink water and my hands was able to hike on a 2.3c to the days Max before dropping back later.
The shield had a few resident flies and a film of dust, so it was a good exercise to get rid of all that.
I think I may give up on the idea of a 24hr FARS (Fan Assisted Radiation Shield) for the moment, although Snowbie alerted me to http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,34677.0.html this, it seems one would have to be very DIY capable, which sadly I'm not the best in the world at.

On another note, in the process of removing an ice cube from the bucket I managed to clock in 0.8mm today, so despite the reading, no snow here today!

kerry1960

Well a plan to relocate the temp sensor turned into a full day spent relocating everything
temp/hum/rain srs bedded in concrete gravel . any comments .

kerry1960

kerry1960 wrote: »

Well a plan to relocate the temp sensor turned into a full day spent relocating everything
temp/hum/rain srs bedded in concrete gravel . any comments .

should be no problems with wind readings.

Danno

I like the wind vane location! Will make some very interesting readings. I would return the area that is gravel to soil and grass though - despite the tidyness in the job done.
It won't matter much in the depths of winter, but the sun will heat that gravel and give higher temperature readings than you'd like come mid Feb.
EDIT: I can just imagine that white dog of yours filling the rain gague with some rather yellow precip! :P :eek:

kerry1960

Danno wrote: »

I like the wind vane location! Will make some very interesting readings. I would return the area that is gravel to soil and grass though - despite the tidyness in the job done.
It won't matter much in the depths of winter, but the sun will heat that gravel and give higher temperature readings than you'd like come mid Feb.
EDIT: I can just imagine that white dog of yours filling the rain gague with some rather yellow precip! :P :eek:

Points accepted Danno ........ the base is there to firm everything up , also makes grass cutting easier , a square of artificial grass (which i can get my hands on) over the base will solve the heating problem imo .

Danno

Ah, now I'm with ya. I dunno about the artificial grass - Snowbie might be better able to answer that one...

Snowbie

Seems to be a lot of turf around there so won't create too much of a problem, just need to keep the grass short near and around the sensors to mix up the air.
I don't know what kinda conduction artifical grass has on it in direct sunshine but on the warmer sunnier days, try taking a temp measurement with the artificial grass over the stones/concrete and try it uncovered and measure again a few mins later and see if there is a big difference.

kerry1960

Snowbie wrote: »

Seems to be a lot of turf around there so won't create too much of a problem, just need to keep the grass short near and around the sensors to mix up the air.
I don't know what kinda conduction artifical grass has on it in direct sunshine but on the warmer sunnier days, try taking a temp measurement with the artificial grass over the stones/concrete and try it uncovered and measure again a few mins later and see if there is a big difference.

Point taken again ......... imo , 1: it's quite a small base area , 2: even the slightest breeze should be enough to mix up the air ,( and calm days are non existent around here ).

One more question , do any of ye lads have these types of sensors in a shaded area or in some type of screen , or do they work best in exposed open area ???

Snowbie

Look at my Pics above. The temp/hum sensor are sheilded in the radiation sheild exposed to sunlight on the VP2. They will underrecord (wont be true measurement) if constantly in the shade as it will read lower temp. No point in manufacturers sheilding them otherwise if placing unit in shade.

kerry1960

Snowbie wrote: »

Look at my Pics above. The temp/hum sensor are sheilded in the radiation sheild exposed to sunlight on the VP2. They will underrecord (wont be true measurement) if constantly in the shade as it will read lower temp. No point in manufacturers sheilding them otherwise if placing unit in shade.

This past few days i had time to take a closer look at these temp readings , both Sat and Sun and in breezy conditions and bright sunshine the afternoon readings were close to 8c , while 50 ft away in the shade of trees the grass remained covered in frost , i actually took the time to set up the temp sensor at the correct height (4ft)in a shaded area and the reading was 2.7c ,that's the reason i asked about siting these sensors .

I accept your point about underrecording in sheltered spots but by the same value i was begining to wonder if my instrument might be overrecording in the open ......cheers .

Danno

What is the quality of the shield on the therm like? Can you upload a photo?

kerry1960

Danno wrote: »

What is the quality of the shield on the therm like? Can you upload a photo?

Dont know if this helps

Snowbie

I just added Tullow, Co Carlow to the mesomap.

Snowbie

Can i make one thing clear about stations data on the IWN site after i got a few mails about offline stations on there. The site is hosted by my webhost (Blacknight.ie) with the domain i purchased for the IWN site and also my personal site. Unless there are changes made to the site, i will inform all the members by email directly or i will post something on here or on the IWN forum.

Since hosting this site began at the end of August, the site has not gone down once. If for whatever reason your station is not uploading to the IWN, please check your own data uploads ie: clientraw.txt, or the VWS and WL stickertags, your data logger is still attached or your type of com you use between the console and your PC and your webhost is still up and running(this is the main issue).

Before placing a site onto the mesomap, i check and doublecheck your data uploading to the site and so requires me no further input into your data (unless you change your web URL)

CrowdedHouse

Could I trouble you folks for a basic list of things needed to have a live weather station.....just a simple list..

I'll Start..

1. A Weather Station that can be connected to a PC
(Oregon WMR200 should be available to me soon)

2. Set up station and connect to PC...and software ?

3. ?

4. ?


TIA

Villain

Thats it except you will need to have somewhere to host the files on the net a free hosting site will do

pauldry

Hi there,

I have my own weather website that focusses on Irelands Long Range Weather Forecast. Now it is only in its infancy so bear with me but I have started to expand to include some more global issues too such as Sea Ice extent and Average/Current world temperature. My weather station that does the graphs is based in Sligo. :pac:

Have a look at http://weathergossip.com

Danno

?

Sponge Bob

WTF happened to the Irelands Weather new website thread ???

Anyways. The Icelandic Met Website is very nice

http://en.vedur.is/

love the slider control .

also

http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/atlantic/

and

http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/areas/

but especially the sliders.

It is most elegant compared to the met.ie site and they may be prepared to supply some of their natty Atlantic forecasts if Irelands Weather ask nicely .

kerry1960

The link to my weather station which i posted recently seems to have been deleted ??? , so for anyone interested here it is again ...

http://live.laoisweather.com/kerry1/

and no Kerry hasn't been annexed by Laois , thanks to Danno for kindly hosting me on his site , also cheers to Snowbie over in the http://www.irelandsweather.com/ for getting me online .

JohnLoughran

Great work Snowbie, bringing all these weather stations to our attention. Its fascinating and far more comprehensive than Met Eireann. I browsed a good few of the weather sites listed in your links. They collect a lot of data including rainfall but not snowfall it seems. It looks like they will only register the snowfall when it melts into the rain gauge? Now the temp is too low, around -4 deg C in Wicklow, Naas, Kilcullen. I wonder how they do it in snowy countries like Norway. I was cross country skiing near Blessington today where there was a good 10 cm of snow. It would be great if I could find out about snow cover from your weather stations as I could then choose a spot with good snow cover and reasonably accessible roads (from Skerries). Any ideas?:)

Villain

Yep thats a problem alright you can input manually the depth but a lot of the website code doesn't pick it up mine can been in the following graphic but only what fell today http://www.carlowweather.com/summary.gif