Cumulus Support

I might have missed a post, but strange that there is no talk of the BBC's new Weatherwatcher's crowd-sourcing "nowcast" site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weatherwatchers - it's UK only right now, but seeing as it only went live this morning, there's already a decent number of reports.

Here's an "introducing weatherwatchers" video http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0371h1x

It's rather limited right now, as data has to be entered manually - this is the kind of thing that would benefit greatly from an API to allow users of weather stations and/or Cumulus to automatically upload data and images. I've contacted weatherwatchers@bbc.co.uk with this suggestion, but the more that do so, the better!

I and a few others in Somerset, were interviewed on BBC Somerset about this, this morning.

I knew about it about 2 weeks ago after attending a pre-launch meeting in Taunton, and signed up for the site then, but the BBC wanted it kept under wraps until it's launch today.

Submission of data is by a manual web page for which you must have a BBC ID and location. It should NOT be used for record keeping as it currently only keeps your last 90 Reports (the BBC name for a an observation submission).

Each "Report" shows a weather icon, temperature, rain (mm/hr), Pressure (hPa but it is a drop down with 4Hpa between each reading i.e. 1008 1012 etc.), Humidity (a drop down that is grouped in ranges), and Wind Speed (mph) and Direction.

You can add a weather related photo (there are some rules on what they can contain) to each "Report" and you can add a comment although this is not available for others to view.

We also asked about an automatic API but since they will only keep 90 "Reports" they are more interested in 2 or 3 manual reports a day at the moment, although they did say this was subject to change.

I've added a report

There was a report on BBC NW Tonight last evening but my heart sank when I saw some of the equipment people were going to use to record weather events.

One had home made equipment such as using a pencil as part of an anemometer and a rain gauge that looked far from accurate. How they would measure temps was never shown. How can equipment like this provide meaningful data?

I can't see how this service would provide any sort of useful service to the public. The Met Office's WOW project is far more useful.

Wouldn't it have been better to get schools involved and at least provide guidance on minimum standards of equipment required to make it worthwhile? Very disappointing.

Yes Ray - I share the same feelings as you do. I registered on the site with our postcode - which is centred exactly on the entrance to our driveway. The Weatherwatchers site insists that I live in a village almost two miles away as the crow flies - can't seem to change it but not much of a problem as I won't be using it much unless they automate the logging process.

WOW is much better and allows you to compare your readings with 'known' local stations - which is quite useful sometimes - like now with my 100% humidity readings for last 3+ days

I've added a few reports since it started and also added the data from my Christmas present of a Maplins easy weather system. I also think an API would have been useful to automate updates and was going to ask but seeing the comments above I'll take a look at Met Office's WOW project....