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Using This Website

First, if you have not already done so, please read the information contained under the "About" tab. This explains the weather station itself.

Two main programs are operating at this website. The base program that underpins everything is Weather Display and the other that builds on it is Weather Display Live. Each contributes something towards what you see here and is discussed below.

Weather Display

Weather Display is software that supports most weather stations from the major manufacturers including this one from Oregon Scientific (WMR200). For those more technically minded readers, it is loaded with features, including:

Many, but not all of these features are activated here.
One feature that some Nangarin users might find helpful is that the system can send them an email notification of various extreme weather-related conditions. For example, the program can let you know when downy mildew is likely to be a problem to susceptible plants in the garden, when frost is likely, or dollar spot or brown patch in turf grasses might break out, or when many values in the system drop below or rise above nominated levels. To be added to this system, please use the "Contact Us" button at the foot of the page and make sure you record the values/information of interest to you and the email address to be used. At present, the system informs certain users when downy mildew is likely to be a problem and spraying with a suitable fungicide might be considered. Potential users need to be aware, though, that while the information is reasonably accurate, it relates only to the site of the weather station and might not apply to different parts of the estate.
Much of the output from the Weather Display software can be seen by pressing the "Detailed Data" button on the left-hand side of this screen and, then, the "Weather Display Raw Data" button. Most of the information here is relatively self explanatory and is updated to the web every 15 minutes. Two issues are discussed here, though, namely the need for the Sydney Airport Metar data shown at the top of the Weather Display Raw Data screen and the wind direction data. (A Metar is a format for reporting weather information. It is used mainly by airport weather stations for pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, but also by meteorologists who use the information to help with weather forecasting.)

The Sydney Airport Metar data is loaded into Weather Display (figure 1, below) to give information on current sky conditions - whether it is cloudy, partly cloudy, sunny, etc. This is needed because, without it, sky conditions would be assessed by a UV sensor. In principle, this is OK because a relationship does exist between UV and solar energy.



However, the UV sensor is the weakest part of the weather station instruments because the way it is built means that, at the beginning and the end of the day, it underestimates UV. However, readings are reasonably accurate in the four or five hours at the middle of the day. Besides these failings, trees surround the weather station (see photos in the "About" tab) and their shade in the early morning and late afternoon is interpreted by the program as heavy cloud.

To try to overcome these UV limitations, sky conditions for the system are taken from the Sydney International Airport Metar. Unfortunately, Camden Airport Metar, which is much closer to Picton and, therefore, should give data that better reflect local conditions, does not offer information in a form that can be read by Weather Display at this stage.

Wind direction data is good whenever the wind speed is above about 7 or 8 kilometres per hour. At lower speeds, though, surrounding trees and the local topography often result in wind direction being quite different to that at higher elevations. Further, wind direction can fluctuate wildly over very short durations.

Weather Display Live

When the website is first opened, viewers come to a screen generated largely by Weather Display Live. It gives almost a live presentation of the data put together by Weather Display, updated about each 20 seconds. The frequency of updating can be any predetermined interval ranging upwards from just a couple of seconds.

Weather Display Live is an add-on to Weather Display that allows users to view weather data over the web from a weather station in nearly real time. Users can choose what weather information is to be displayed, how it is displayed and the units to display it with.

All users of the actual Weather Display Live program need is access to a website, Weather Display set up to FTP live data and, of course, the Weather Display Live software. There is no requirement for server side scripting technologies such as databases, php or asp. Most of the graphical information presented by Weather Display Live is self explanatory and is seen when viewers first open the website or by pressing the top button on the left-hand side of the display.

Notice, though, that the cursor changes as it is moved around the Weather Display Live screen. Sometimes it is a pointer and does nothing in particular, other times it changes to a hand. When it's a hand, depending on where it is on the screen, it might also show a dialogue box that gives viewers more information about what they are looking at.

If the left-hand mouse button is pressed while it's a hand, it might give more detailed graphical information about what has occurred over the last 24-hours for the item. For example, figure 2 (below) shows the kind of data that appears if the cursor is held over the "temp" label (outside temperature). However, this feature is not offered unilaterally.

The two graphs to the right of that for outside temperature show the temperature in the ceiling cavity and living area of the website owner.




Most of the data viewers see on the screen is reliable. Four areas can have problems, though. These are rainfall, wind direction, UV and solar energy. Wind direction, UV and solar energy have already been discussed above.

Rainfall data is good for the most part. Rarely, however, birds fighting or very strong wind (>50 km/hr) can shake the rain gauge causing the tipping bucket to flip and show rainfall that has not occurred. Mostly, this is noticed at the time and adjustments made to the data within 24 hours. Totals for the day, month and year will then be correct, but the graphs are not changed.

When looking at the Weather Display Live screen, two sets of buttons are visible, one below all the graphical data and the other to the left of it.

The Lower Array of Buttons

Four buttons occur below the graphical data: Graphs, Records, Webcam and Units. The webcam is located in a home at Nangarin and provides time-lapse evidence (one minute intervals) of the northern sky conditions, updated hourly at about 10 minutes past the hour. The other three buttons are self explanatory and are not discussed further.

The Left-hand Array of Buttons

Eight buttons occur on the left-hand side of the graphical data. Most are self explanatory, one, "Detailed Data", has been discussed above, while "Weather Underground" is discussed here.

The Weather Underground web site is at the University of Michigan in the United States. It continues to evolve and is now billed as the world's largest network of personal weather stations (almost 10,000 stations in the USA and over 3,000 elsewhere). It gives Australian users an alternative to information given by the Bureau of Meteorology. However, it is largely based on personal weather stations like this one and these are uncontrolled - quality of data can vary. Possibly the volume of data, though, adequately compensates.