Weather station analysis?

Is there a way to have a PWS analyzed? I ask because there is one in my neighborhood that I would like to use, but I’m not sure if it’s providing good info.

This is the PWS: http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/search?site=D6670

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Unfortunately the station you are interested in does not seem to provide rainfall data, which is actually the most important data rachio is interested in.

If you don’t have another station nearby visible via rachio interface, you could try checking out weather underground, here is what you get if you search location by zip:


Make sure to click the actual name of the station
(next to the broadcast type of icon, in this case “North Hill Estates”, in order to get better information)


Next you want to look for a gold star station, meaning that it is being updated on a regular basis and data seems consistent with expectations. If you don’t see a gold star, it is a good idea to look for another station.


Finally you want to scroll down and switch the history data to a monthly mode, make sure to click View button after to apply the change.


Make sure to check out a few month to make sure the station is reporting rain data, station in our example does not (graph always stays at 0), and thus not a good fit even though it is otherwise a gold star station.


You can click on the map, to check out other nearby stations, make sure to look for gold star and good rain data. Here is an example of another bad station in the area (note a lack of gold star, and oddly constant rain data)



After finding a good station, it should look something like this (don’t forget to change history display into monthly view every time you switch a station):


And a bit further down the page (after switching to a monthly view) we get a nice rain data:


Now that you may have found a good weather underground station which you wish to use, you can setup data link between weather underground and pwsweather, in order to make use of this data with rachio (weather underground is unfortunately not supported directly). Here is how this can be done using wufyi.com: a forum post (link) where wufyi setup is described in more detail.

Hope it helps,
Gene

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@crblack24 When is the last time you got rain in your area? At first glance, I agreed with @gene’s analysis that the station was not receiving precip data, however after checking this station in your area, it looks like you guys just have not received rain in quite a while :open_mouth:

@mckynzee You’ve accidentally linked to data from 2013, this month it seems that the area had over 3 inches of rain.

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@Gene Wow, thank you for that catch. I clearly need a nap or something :joy:

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@Gene -you are correct! This is just east of my location. My neighbor has a WU weather station and it reported 3.25 inches for the last 30 days. KDAL - the NWS station at Dallas Love field airport has reported 2.73 inches for month.

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@mckynzee No worries, I’m actually hoping that you are right and it is 2013 all over again :slight_smile:

@DLane From now on I’ll be reading all of your comments with a Texan accent :wink:

@Gene - when speaking in front of international folks I tell them not to worry as English is not my first language either. I speak Texan, then American and my third language is English :wink:

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:joy: