Rain Season Begins

[Blicj11]

I know I am very slow in discovering many of the very cool features in WeatherCat. I am probably the last person on the forum to learn this but today I discovered the Rain Seasons Begins feature in Preferences. It's been there for years, but I just decided to figure it out today. Most of the water reporting entities in the US have standardised on the water year that begins on 1 October 1 and ends on the following 30 September. By selecting October as the month for Rain Season Begins, I can view precipitation measured by my PWS in the same water year as the reporting entities for comparison. Changing the setting for Rain Season Begins does not impact any of the annual data.

I can't see that the seasonal statistics for rain and snow show up on any of the canned reports, but they do work with the tags. For example, here are some of the tags that work with seasonal precipitation data:

Highest rain rate this season: STAT$RAIN:MAX:THISSEASON$ RAINUNITS$/h on STAT$RAIN:MAX:THISSEASON:TIME$
Average rain rate this season: STAT$RAIN:AVERAGE:THISSEASON$ RAINUNITS$
Rain this season: STAT$RAIN:TOTAL:THISSEASON$ RAINUNITS$

Snow this season: STAT$SNOW:TOTAL:THISSEASON$ RAINUNITS$
Snow days this season: STAT$SNOWDAYS:TOTAL:THISSEASON$
Snow days last season: STAT$SNOWDAYS:TOTAL:LASTSEASON$

Thanks Stu, for including this capability in WeatherCat. In my opinion, the Cat is the most versatile and complete weather software available for macOS and it just keeps getting better with each release (speaking of WeatherCat, not macOS ? haha).

 

[xairbusdriver]

Thanks for the reminder! Always great to have some one (else) read The Manual!!!

I don't use that statistic mainly because I'm not sure anyone viewing my site (either of them) would know the difference between the two totals! But it is amazing how much capability resides in the WC app that often goes unused! I only wish the NWS SOAP server were as reliable.

[elagache]

Dear Blick, X-Air, and WeatherCat "trying to decide on which convention" types,

I know I am very slow in discovering many of the very cool features in WeatherCat. I am probably the last person on the forum to learn this but today I discovered the Rain Seasons Begins feature in Preferences. It's been there for years, but I just decided to figure it out today.

Yes indeed!  Very useful! 

Most of the water reporting entities in the US have standardised on the water year that begins on 1 October 1 and ends on the following 30 September. By selecting October as the month for Rain Season Begins, I can view precipitation measured by my PWS in the same water year as the reporting entities for comparison. Changing the setting for Rain Season Begins does not impact any of the annual data.

I'm sticking to the California convention of July 1 to June 30.  I just checked and it still appears to be use:

http://lompocrecord.com/news/local/rainfall-year-season-differs-from-water-year-designation-for-forecasters/article_c1e1c1ba-89ba-598f-89ba-303c3e56d2b3.html

It is one of those messy situations with one bureaucracy complaining about another.  I assume that the 100 years of rainfall data that is archived for California is divided by month, so it would be possible to convert all the old data into the October 1st to 30th September convention.  The usual question is - who - is going to pay for that.  With California leaders determined to make huge tunnels to steal more water from the North and high speed trains to nowhere . . . . . Obviously we can't afford to convert our rainfall data . . . . . 

Oh well, . . . . . Edouard

[Blicj11]

According to the California Department of Water Resources, the state is using the common water year dates (October 1 - September 30). I understand that some folks are unhappy about this.

[montever]

Both the DWR and the National Weather Service in California have shifted over to the October 1 through September 30 water year as the rainfall season.  This was done unilaterally and without much fanfare two years ago, if I remember correctly.   Several of the NWS offices are reporting rainfall for the calendar year, the old rainfall season (1 July-30 June), and the new rainfall season (water year).  I am sure that won't go on much longer, since we just all have to get used to the water year concept.

This really won't affect the public much, since most data bases archive rainfall by the calendar year.  For the rest of us who have our rainfall statistics in Excel (or another such program), it will be easy to convert over too. 

[Blicj11]

Now that I have mastered the season setting in WeatherCat, I can abandon my spreadsheet. Hahaha. One less thing with which to clutter up my mind.