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Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 06:55
by macknife
As a real novice, please help me read my weather program Cumulus,:
1. Windrun: What period is this measured, when does it start, is it cumulative?
2. Data for last hour, is it the hour immediatly preseeding the readind?
3. Data for month. Is it a Calendar month.
4. Data for the day, does this start at 0900 hrs?

That's just a start :-) Thanks for your attention. Mac

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 08:35
by David
Welcome :smile:

1. Windrun is a daily value, and yes it is cumulative. It starts at the daily reset time you have set.
2. Not too sure what exactly you are asking here
3. Yes the monthly data is based on calendar months.
4. 0900 hrs is the official NZ reset time. Some use midnight reset. You can view/change daily reset time by going into Configuration > Station using the menus.

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 09:23
by Manukau heads obs
for 2, the question is, is the last hour wind run viewed at say 30 minutes past the hour include that 30 minutes since the top of the hour (and the 30 minutes prior to the top of the hour)

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 09:26
by Michael
The metservice seems to use 6pm for their data especially the sunshine,Windrun doesnt mean a lot to me,gusts and average speeds do.I think the maximum gust is for the day and average for the hour,what I read on weatherdisplay anyway.

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 10:32
by Nev
Re Q2: A calendar-month ends on the last day at midnight. A meteorological-month ends at 9am on the 1st of the following month.

The meteorological day (and month) has been in use for up to a 100 years along with the practice of placing some daily observations, such as max-temps, rainfall, wind-run data, back one day.

Exceptions being data supplied to the media. In order to meet print deadlines, morning newspapers generally have a cut-off time of 6pm the previous day (consequently, daily sunshine data is usually delayed by a day). The day's 'TV-temps' on the evening news have a cut-off time of 4pm.

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 11:32
by Tornado Tim
Nev wrote: A meteorological-month ends at 9am on the 1st of the following month.
The meteorological day (and month) has been in use for up to a 100 years along with the practice of placing some daily observations, such as max-temps, rainfall, wind-run data, back one day.
For peoples reference, the U.S and Canada and other counties do not follow this rule, Australia and New Zealand seem to be the odd one out using a 9 AM reset.

I personally dont use a 9 AM reset as the day ends and new one begins at midnight (not 9AM). Most software nowadays (not sure about cumulus) can readout a 9AM reset reading and a midnight reset reading so you can conform to both standard reset times.

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 12:53
by Manukau heads obs
australia is different again re rain re 9am reset re change of the month
(midnight is used for the change in the month one time)

Re: Reading weather programs

Posted: Mon 09/04/2012 16:18
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
For my records I use 10pm, each night for my reset :smile: