Cumulus only sending last hour rain to WU?

[Spider-Vice]

So my rain rate has reached 32 mm/h, but WU only decided to consider the last hour rain (or Cumulus), which was 3,6mm, making the rain rate in the graph not real. So I ask is this what Cumulus sends or what? I see other stations with their real rain rates, not only the last hour rain on the graphs.

Check mine, the "rain rate" only reached 3,6mm while it was really 32 mm/h.
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... &year=2012

Not hating on Cumulus at all but wouldn't it be better to report the real rain rate? As I see other stations with it, I can't (entirely) blame WU but I don't want this to sound like a bad message to Cumulus.

Thanks.

[steve]

Not hating on Cumulus at all but wouldn't it be better to report the real rain rate?

Here's the Wunderground upload protocol: http://wiki.wunderground.com/index.php/ ... d_Protocol

If you can spot where Cumulus should be sending the "real rain rate", please enlighten me.

[Spider-Vice]

Well, I get your point, but I'm just curious as I see other stations (Even though with other software) reporting that rate, sometimes even replacing the total rain accumulated temporarily with the rainrate, then correcting itself, I guess for graphing purposes, even though the rapidfire will be fine.

[steve]

What you need to bear in mind is that what you are calling the "real" rain rate is just an arbitrary figure calculated by Cumulus based on the rain in the last five minutes. WU use an hour. Who's to say which is the "real" rain rate?

WU presumably don't ask for a rain rate to be uploaded because they know that each weather station and each software calculates rain rate differently. The rain in the last hour is a well-defined figure that all software can supply and allows direct comparison between different stations.