Cumulus Support

I know spiders are a perennial problem with many weather stations. This week I noticed that my WH65 sensor suite wasn't registering rain. I thought that high winds may have blocked the funnel with leaf debris - but it was clean. So I took it off the mount and brought it in for inspection. Twisting the funnel off revealed some dirt on the 'tipping bucket' which came off easily but it was obvious that the bucket wasn't returning to it's 'home' position. After rinsing out the rain gauge assembly it still didn't return to it's correct position. Then I noticed the very thin but very strong single spider thread attached to the bucket from below - it took a bright torch to spot it . After cleaning this away with a flexible plastic strip all was well. I was then putting the funnel back on and noticed the same material across the hole above the bucket. This was reducing the flow rate into the assembly dramatically. Easy to clear away but not easy to spot - especially without a bright light.

I will have to check my WH40 as well!