Shepherds Valley Farm Weather Station Website

Shepherds Valley WX · Tue 12/10/2004 13:56

Hi guys, my weather station data is now on the net at :

http://www.tokaanuskihire.co.nz/kaipara/SVWX.htm

I have to say a big thanks to Brian H for his help and assistance in both set up and hosting of this site. His WD software is superb and his support is second to none. i think we all take his expertise and product for granted sometimes.

My WX PC Is connected to my farm PC, so unless we are on the phone, the weather PC will update the info on the site every 5 mins.

Location is 6kms SW of Helensville in the North Island.

Cheers all,

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Tue 12/10/2004 17:28

Good stuff! Will be interesting to compare temperatures with my readings - I'm just a bit further south at Waimauku.

Cheers,

G

Manukau heads obs · Tue 12/10/2004 17:39

good stuff
now, just a note, some of the data will get upated at the next avererages/extreme update
(i.e midnight or 9am)
now, also, i see you midnight as the daily reset time....in NZ its actualy 9am ...so set that in the units setup (see under control panel)
also, set the colour of the hour line plot on the graph to a colour closer to the background graph colour, so that its not as noticeable (see in the colour setup under control panel)

also, how do you have the temperature/hum sensor mounted?
ideally if you could get the whole thing into a stevenscreen or similar then you wont get heating from reflected solar radiation

There are quite a few sites using my ftp server that i provide

the Byrdewyn station I am replacing with a rainwise staton on this thursday, as the WM918 has given up

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Tue 12/10/2004 18:42

Its a good location for a weather station.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Tue 12/10/2004 18:50

Hmmm Te Pua is just about in the middle right of this photo for those that may remember this storm shot from Kiwitahi road in January 1999:

G

Shepherds Valley WX · Tue 12/10/2004 20:28

Thanks guys for all the positive feedback...

I must admit I am still learning as I go and will do my best to ensure the data uploaded is accurate.

Brian, I will make the changes you suggest ASAP...

FYI - my thermo/hygro sensor is mounted on my sensor mast and I have installed it in a home made solar shield. Its made from a white feed bucket that is perforated with holes toallow free air flow. So far the measurements of the weather station have matched 2 manual farm thermometers and the 2 manual rain guages I have, so I am reasonably confident it is accurate.

Graeme, awesome to know there is another weather enthusiast living local! I know Kiwitahi Rd, its the one that spends a couple of weeks a year under water down on the flood plain!

When did you take the photo? Your directions are exactly right!

All sugestions and advice welcome, like I say, Ia ma complete novice but trying to learn as much from you guys as possible.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Tue 12/10/2004 20:53

Shepherds Valley WX wrote:Graeme, awesome to know there is another weather enthusiast living local! I know Kiwitahi Rd, its the one that spends a couple of weeks a year under water down on the flood plain! When did you take the photo? Your directions are exactly right!

I've lived in the area since I was 6 years old (shifted up here in 1977) so went to the local schools and got to know and love Kiwitahi road - I still recon the rally of NZ should use it like they used to do in the 80's but run the opposite way down the hill

We used to do it all the time when we were 'young'. I guess we are fairly lucky that we haven't seen the floods like there was in the 80's - I can remember going to college in a bus up the highway during a flood - could just see the tops of the marker posts on the sides of the road. Lucky not to go off into a ditch or stall - bus driver must have been keen or stupid. I think we got off early that day to avoid the high tide later in the afternoon. Kaukapakapa was cut off, I think the only way out of Helensville was Wishart Rd which has a slip or 3.

Currently looking for a house in Helensville so I guess you could say I'm attached to the area.

Picture was taken January 21 1999, there was a tornado reported in South Head with a hayshed getting demolished from memory.

Cheers,

G

Manukau heads obs · Tue 12/10/2004 23:09

Its made from a white feed bucket that is perforated with holes toallow free air flow. So far the measurements of the weather station have matched 2 manual farm thermometers and the 2 manual rain guages I have, so I am reasonably confident it is accurate.

thats good to know

Shepherds Valley WX · Tue 19/10/2004 09:44

Thanks for the feedback Brian re the site,

As you know I am experiencing some difficulties with the FTP data upload but as discussed elsewhere (WD Forum), it is my old PC running WD that is causing the problems!!

I will change the coulours as you suggest ASAP, but I have ticked the "reset at 9am" option in the Setup window...however WD continues to reset at midnite. This does'nt actually bother me, but Iwonder if there was a scientific reason for the 9am reset?

Also, to all the others who have home based WX PC's, what is your system PC specification... I want to buy a second hand system to run WD 24/7 and replace my P2 300 which is to slow and is a bit unstable...

Shepherds Valley WX · Tue 19/10/2004 09:47

Hey Graham,

I meant to reply to your post earlier but have been busy as!

We have only been in the area around 4 years, but last year (late September) there was a massive flood in the upper catchment of the Kaipara River, coinciding with a heavy rainfall, spring tide and a NW gale....caused extensive flooding to a mate of mine's property down on SH16 beside the river....

How often does the Kaipara flood out of interest!!!

And are there any precursors to a flood event? I'll let him know to be on guard, it seems that September is always the month for floods...

Equinox tides etc?

Manukau heads obs · Tue 19/10/2004 09:48

hi
you also need to set the hour to do the reset to 9, as well as ticking the 9am main reset time

(some countries believe it or no have a 4pm reset for some things!

jeffsweather · Unread post by **jeffsweather** » Tue 19/10/2004 12:13

Shepherds Valley WX wrote: Also, to all the others who have home based WX PC's, what is your system PC specification... I want to buy a second hand system to run WD 24/7 and replace my P2 300 which is to slow and is a bit unstable...

Hi Macca,
Not a direct comparison as I'm not using WD but my station runs on an old Pentium 233 with 64MB RAM with Linux. The PC is only lightly loaded with the tasks it has to do, putting the data in the data base, extracting it , drawing graphs, weather stats come from the database etc.
No plans to upgrade as it's more then up to the job.

Shepherds Valley WX · Tue 19/10/2004 13:02

Gidday Jeff and thanks for the response.

Yeah I thought that my old machine would have been up to the job as well. I have a new 2.8Ghz P4 for farm duties, but would rather have an old PC trucking away 24/7/365 handling the WX duties by itself...unfortunately, altho it worked well in the past with WD, the addition of the FTP uploading to the SVWX web page is taxing the old girl a bit more than before....

Anyone selling a decent old PC!! 1G processor with 256MB RAM!!??

Manukau heads obs · Tue 19/10/2004 13:10

i posted a suggestion on the wd forum, that you can stagger what WD does, to reduce the demands ...i.e get it to update/upload the text based web table and then then gif images and different times....use the customise internet and file creation upload to do that...that will help

Shepherds Valley WX · Tue 19/10/2004 13:47

thanks Brian, as always your support for WD, is superb!