Cumulus Support

I've noticed the wind speeds are a little high , I've just applied the offset you advised. See how it goes....

Thanks for the time and effort on making this a great little forecaster.
So many interesting and talented folk on this forum.

mildmuck wrote:I've noticed the wind speeds are a little high , I've just applied the offset you advised. See how it goes....

Thanks for the time and effort on making this a great little forecaster.
So many interesting and talented folk on this forum.

I am not sure if you completely updated the scripts or not. This says 2014-01-11 instead of 2014-01-14:

http://www.stokepriorweather.co.uk/bt-sager.php

Buford T. Justice wrote:

mildmuck wrote:I've noticed the wind speeds are a little high , I've just applied the offset you advised. See how it goes....

Thanks for the time and effort on making this a great little forecaster.
So many interesting and talented folk on this forum.

I am not sure if you completely updated the scripts or not. This says 2014-01-11 instead of 2014-01-14:

http://www.stokepriorweather.co.uk/bt-sager.php

I've updated the scripts to 01-14, I honestly didn't feel the need to update as it was working quite well

My apologies , anyway I've decided to use an offset of 10 in bt-sager-cu file.

I've been using the php version since the 21st but I haven't seen any difference compared to the java one.
I think this may have something to do with the METAR station I'm using, the information I've highlighted have never changed apart from when my station has rain and m2 says precipitation. Yesterday I had snow but the forecast had said "Fair, Moderate to fresh (13-24 ) winds".

rich27gc wrote:I've been using the php version since the 21st but I haven't seen any difference compared to the java one.
I think this may have something to do with the METAR station I'm using, the information I've highlighted have never changed apart from when my station has rain and m2 says precipitation. Yesterday I had snow but the forecast had said "Fair, Moderate to fresh (13-24 ) winds".

The forecasts between the JavaScript and PHP versions are essentially all the same. PHP is simply faster as it does it calculations on the server whereas JavaScript does the calculations on the client making it slower.

Most METAR stations have a precipitation sensor. In the USA, it is shown near the end of the METAR report as "AO2" if the METAR has this sensor else it is shown as "AO1".

I see your METAR now says...

ms = EGNC
m1 = OVC
m2 = RA (Rain)
rm = 83
pw = Precipitation

And the Forecast says...

Showers; Moderate to fresh (13-24 mph) South or Southwest winds becoming Southwest or West winds.

So either it has the precipitation sensor or someone is there and adding what is happening to the METAR report.

In other words, Snow is not going to be reported unless it is in the METAR.

I knew the METAR would report rain as soon as I posted

As I said in my PM to you, I'm a little concerned about the difference in altitude between the METAR and my location being almost 750 ft, that must make a difference.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think the altitude will make much difference at all. The most important factor is distance. If it is overcast there then it should be overcast at your location. Now granted they may be having a shower and you are not, but you very well may or may not be getting it depending on where the rain is going.

You might want to look at this list and see if there is a METAR station closer to you:

http://www.aviationweather.gov/static/adds/metars/stations.txt

The United Kingdom starts about in the middle of the above link. When you see a METAR code that may be close, make sure it works by going to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/observations/metar/stations/EGNC.TXT (Replace EGNC with the METAR station ID you want to try as some of the listings don't work).

Ok thanks will take a look

BT,
I have got my forecast up and running. I am keeping an eye on the wind values which seem a little high. I have applied an offset of 15 to try to get them more accurate.

Thanks for the scripts and the excellent instructions.

Bridger wrote:BT,
I have got my forecast up and running. I am keeping an eye on the wind values which seem a little high. I have applied an offset of 15 to try to get them more accurate.

Thanks for the scripts and the excellent instructions.

Cool. What is your website address? You might want to not go that high. Usually start at 5 then move up to 10 and so on.

EDIT:

I found it...

http://www.fordingbridgeweather.co.uk/

I increased it in increments of 5 until it seemed accurate but I am still monitoring it.

The latest version of BT's Global Sager Weathercaster PHP Scripts For Cumulus dated 2014-01-30 have been released. Several improvements have been made.

For those of you who had METAR stations which had a Precipitation Code in the station ID, that has now been fixed so when you update you will not need to delete any Precipitation Codes.

Instead of using and having code for in-between wind directions NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW, and NNW which The Sager Weathercaster doesn't exactly use (they get combined into other directions), I did what The Sager Weathercaster does and just made all wind directions in 45° sections so all wind bearings are accounted for and the directions used are:

N = 338-360 and 1-22
NE = 23-67
E = 68-112
SE = 113-157
S = 158-202
SW = 203-247
W = 248-292
NW = 293-337
Calm = 0

Several other small improvements have been made to all of the PHP files.

To upgrade, simply over-write the files in the Cumulus\web folder with what is in the attached .zip file in the first post of this thread. Add your METAR station in "bt-sager-cu.php". Do your translations if needed in "bt-sager-wc.php". Upload all three files to your web server. Wait for Cumulus to perform a web update.

I have updated and all seems fine.

Paul

PaulMy wrote:I have updated and all seems fine.

Paul

Cool. I see your forecast is saying Snow and the METAR is reporting snow as well.

I have been keeping a log of Davis, BT Sager, and Environment Canada forecasts and the BT-Sager does a very good job. While there is usually some time differences between the current Davis/BT-Sager to EC forecasts, the BT-Sager is quite responsive to upcoming conditions but on a much shorter time period. The Davis forecast is certainly lacking in comparison!

Thanks BT,
Paul