Snow Registration

[avoorpool]

Hi Steve,

Since I started Mid-May with Cumulus, I haven't gone through the winter season, meaning Snow registration. (Winnipeg and N/W Ontario had 30 cm this past week , and that's before our (today) Thanksgiving Weekend!!!!)
I've added a section on the website below 'Rainfall' with 'Snowfall' and added the webtag <#snowdepth> which should be manually entered in the 'Weather Diary' I believe.
However, there are 2 more sections in Weather Diary to check: "Snow Lying" and "Snow Falling". Are those displayed with a webtag as well (I couldn't find it)
Also, there is the 'Snow Index', which I've read about in FAQ, however questions remain:
- I assume the manually entered snowdepth will appear where the webtag is entered on my website. When snow has melted you enter "0" again untill the next snow dump occurs??
- Is there a way to have a cumulative snow calculation (i.e a total in cm over the entire winter), or do I check the logfile where the data from Weather Diary is entered and make a cumulative number myself? (Which log-file is used??)
- As for the Snow Index, what number do I enter?
- Any other suggestions from your side to "battle" the Canadian winter with correct snow registration???

Thanks,

Arthur

[steve]

Basically, Cumulus is intended for gathering data from a weather station, not manually entered data. I put the snow information into the weather diary for my use when I lived in a place that had lots of snow (by UK standards). Someone wanted to automatically display the snow depth on their web site, so I added the web tag, but it's a really inefficient way to do it because it has to trawl through the file every time to extract the data. It's only intended for viewing, via the diary in Cumulus.

If you want to display snow figures on your web site, I strongly recommend that you don't use Cumulus to do it.

But to answer your questions:

"Snow Lying" and "Snow Falling". Are those displayed with a webtag as well

No

I assume the manually entered snowdepth will appear where the webtag is entered on my website. When snow has melted you enter "0" again untill the next snow dump occurs??

Yes

Is there a way to have a cumulative snow calculation (i.e a total in cm over the entire winter), or do I check the logfile where the data from Weather Diary is entered and make a cumulative number myself? (Which log-file is used??)

The depth figure in Cumulus is intended to be the amount of snow on the ground each day, not the amount that has fallen each day. The snow index is the sum of those values over the winter. If you want the total that has fallen, you will either have to calculate it yourself from separate records (but how do you actually know how much snow is new snow each day anyway?) or enter that value into Cumulus instead of entering the current depth; the snow index will then give you the total. the file is log.xml; it's not intended to be easily human-readable.

As for the Snow Index, what number do I enter?

I don't understand the question; you don't enter a number, Cumulus calculates it.

Any other suggestions from your side to "battle" the Canadian winter with correct snow registration???

Yes - keep separate records.

[avoorpool]

Thanks Steve,

That's great!
I hope I don't have to use it that often (Last winter, Toronto had an all-time low snowfall )
I'll make a log myself and see what approx values I can add to come to a cumulative value at the end of the winter.

Cheers,

Arthur

[vpokroglo]

...i think that relationship between snow accumulation and dayfile.txt would be nice... i posted this opinion some time ago, and Steve promises that he will include it in future build...

[steve]

Steve promises that he will include it in future build...

I think you'll find I did no such thing (smiley noted).