Rainfall rate?

[kalen]

One thing I noticed about meteobridge uploads to weather underground is that whenever it rains, even if it is just 0.2mm the rainfall rate will stay at 0.2mm for the whole hour before returning to 0. This is misleading as if it is just a 5 minute shower and it is showing as if it is raining for an hour.
In addition to this, The rainfall rate is never a true reading. For example if it rain 5mm in 30 minutes, the reading will be 5mm/hr up to that point.

An example of this would be today as I had 2 short heavy showers, one recorded 2.0mm and the other 1.3mm. Now on the graph it shows a rain rate of 2.0mm/hr for the first one and 1.3mm/hr for the second one, whereas realistically, it was around 8mm/hr for a while:


What I would like to see would be smoother rainfall rates such as this, from another nearby station: They reflect more realistically of the intensity and length of the rain.


I don't think this is impossible as meteobridge does actually show the maximum rainfall rates in the live data feed, and would love for these to be then reflected onto weather underground. Or at least change the 1 hour rainfall rate problem.

[RickNY]

I'm not noticing the issue you are showing, and I am using a Davis Vantage Pro2 with Meteobridge. My rainfall rate grph (for the last day it rained) is as shown:



The rainfall rate, as you see on my graph, is showing correctly (for me): the rate (at that particular time) of precipitation per hour.

You could have .25" of rain fall in a 15 minute period, and that it -- in which case your rainfall RATE was 1"/hour for that 15 minute period.

What is your update interval to WU set at? I'm doing every 5 seconds for rapid-fire updates.

Rick

[kalen]

My update is also rapid fire at 5 seconds. It may be because that rainfall from your graph lasts for a few hours. It is less noticeable then. Have you got a day which has a quick shower?

[wvdkuil]

My update is also rapid fire at 5 seconds. It may be because that rainfall from your graph lasts for a few hours. It is less noticeable then. Have you got a day which has a quick shower?

It can also be a "problem / feature" of WeatherUnderground.
I am using WeatherlinkIP to upload to Wunderground. So Meteohub nor Meteobridge sends any data to Wunderground. But my graphs look exactly like yours. When it starts raining the rate is calculated and remains at that level for one hour. The detailed listing shows the same.
Take a look at my history page http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... &year=2013
The graph I enclose here also.
Wim

[admin]

These are the fields WU accepts for uploading data

Code: Select all

/*
action [action=updateraw] -- always supply this parameter to indicate you are making a weather obse
rvation upload
ID [ID as registered by wunderground.com]
PASSWORD [PASSWORD registered with this ID, case sensative]
dateutc - [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (mysql format)]
winddir - [0-360 instantaneous wind direction]
windspeedmph - [mph instantaneous wind speed]
windgustmph - [mph current wind gust, using software specific time period]
windgustdir - [0-360 using software specific time period]
windspdmph_avg2m  - [mph 2 minute average wind speed mph]
winddir_avg2m - [0-360 2 minute average wind direction]
windgustmph_10m - [mph past 10 minutes wind gust mph ]
windgustdir_10m - [0-360 past 10 minutes wind gust direction]
humidity - [% outdoor humidity 0-100%]
dewptf- [F outdoor dewpoint F]
tempf - [F outdoor temperature]
 * for extra outdoor sensors use temp2f, temp3f, and so on
rainin - [rain inches over the past hour)] -- the accumulated rainfall in the past 60 min
dailyrainin - [rain inches so far today in local time]
baromin - [barometric pressure inches]
weather - [text] -- metar style (+RA)
clouds - [text] -- SKC, FEW, SCT, BKN, OVC
soiltempf - [F soil temperature]
 * for sensors 2,3,4 use soiltemp2f, soiltemp3f, and soiltemp4f
soilmoisture - [%]
* for sensors 2,3,4 use soilmoisture2, soilmoisture3, and soilmoisture4
leafwetness  - [%]
+ for sensor 2 use leafwetness2
solarradiation - [W/m^2]
UV - [index]
visibility - [nm visibility]
indoortempf - [F indoor temperature F]
indoorhumidity - [% indoor humidity 0-100]
softwaretype - [text] ie: WeatherLink, VWS, WeatherDisplay

when you look at these two lines, it gets clear what happens:

Code: Select all

rainin - [rain inches over the past hour)] -- the accumulated rainfall in the past 60 min
dailyrainin - [rain inches so far today in local time]

So WU cannot show current rain intensity, but last 60 minutes total rain fall.

[rmccullough]

These are the fields WU accepts for uploading data

Code: Select all

/*
action [action=updateraw] -- always supply this parameter to indicate you are making a weather obse
rvation upload
ID [ID as registered by wunderground.com]
PASSWORD [PASSWORD registered with this ID, case sensative]
dateutc - [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (mysql format)]
winddir - [0-360 instantaneous wind direction]
windspeedmph - [mph instantaneous wind speed]
windgustmph - [mph current wind gust, using software specific time period]
windgustdir - [0-360 using software specific time period]
windspdmph_avg2m  - [mph 2 minute average wind speed mph]
winddir_avg2m - [0-360 2 minute average wind direction]
windgustmph_10m - [mph past 10 minutes wind gust mph ]
windgustdir_10m - [0-360 past 10 minutes wind gust direction]
humidity - [% outdoor humidity 0-100%]
dewptf- [F outdoor dewpoint F]
tempf - [F outdoor temperature]
 * for extra outdoor sensors use temp2f, temp3f, and so on
rainin - [rain inches over the past hour)] -- the accumulated rainfall in the past 60 min
dailyrainin - [rain inches so far today in local time]
baromin - [barometric pressure inches]
weather - [text] -- metar style (+RA)
clouds - [text] -- SKC, FEW, SCT, BKN, OVC
soiltempf - [F soil temperature]
 * for sensors 2,3,4 use soiltemp2f, soiltemp3f, and soiltemp4f
soilmoisture - [%]
* for sensors 2,3,4 use soilmoisture2, soilmoisture3, and soilmoisture4
leafwetness  - [%]
+ for sensor 2 use leafwetness2
solarradiation - [W/m^2]
UV - [index]
visibility - [nm visibility]
indoortempf - [F indoor temperature F]
indoorhumidity - [% indoor humidity 0-100]
softwaretype - [text] ie: WeatherLink, VWS, WeatherDisplay

when you look at these two lines, it gets clear what happens:

Code: Select all

rainin - [rain inches over the past hour)] -- the accumulated rainfall in the past 60 min
dailyrainin - [rain inches so far today in local time]

So WU cannot show current rain intensity, but last 60 minutes total rain fall.

Then why do some stations show the current rain rate and not the last 60 minutes of rain?