Author Topic: Adding peak rainfall rate to records that are tracked?  (Read 2408 times)

elagache

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Adding peak rainfall rate to records that are tracked?
« on: March 07, 2016, 12:07:24 AM »
Dear Stu and WeatherCat feature junkies,

I don't see any way to determine the record peak rainfall rate from your weather station using WeatherCat.  Since it is an indication of whether or not storms are getting more severe in your area, I think it might be interesting to include in addition to the total amount of rain that fell in a day.

Anyone else agree?

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Bull Winkus

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Re: Adding peak rainfall rate to records that are tracked?
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2016, 12:22:36 AM »
I have tried in the past to find peak rainfall amounts, being only vaguely aware of when and by how much, and found it an arduous task to relocate the data. I'm not sure where you want this reported, but I think easier access to peak rain rates for each event would be welcome.

 [cheers1]
Herb

elagache

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Can find it with STAT tag (Re: Adding peak rainfall rate to records)
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2016, 10:55:26 PM »
Howdy Herb and WeatherCat power users,

I have tried in the past to find peak rainfall amounts, being only vaguely aware of when and by how much, and found it an arduous task to relocate the data. I'm not sure where you want this reported, but I think easier access to peak rain rates for each event would be welcome.

Well thinking about the problem I found a way to get the answer in the interim.  You can used the STAT tag.  The easiest way to do this is with a little AppleScript like this (also attached:)

Code: [Select]
local rainRate, rainTime
tell application "WeatherCat"
set Query to "STAT$RAIN:MAX:ALLTIME$"
set rainRate to QueryResultString
set Query to "STAT$RAIN:MAX:ALLTIME:TIME$"
set rainTime to QueryResultString
end tell

rainRate & " inches/hr on " & rainTime

However, when I tried running this, I got what I was convinced was a ridiculous answer:

"23.04 inches/hr on 4 Feb 2016 5:19 PM"

Eventually though, I realized that this data was from that "terrible storm" when my rain gauge got plugged:

http://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=2028.0

So I came up with a modified script to find out what was the highest real peak rainfall rate:

Code: [Select]
local rainRate, rainTime
tell application "WeatherCat"
set Query to "STAT$RAIN:MAX:2009-10-01/2016-02-01$"
set rainRate to QueryResultString
set Query to "STAT$RAIN:MAX:2009-10-01/2016-02-01:TIME$"
set rainTime to QueryResultString
end tell

rainRate & " inches/hr on " & rainTime

When I run that I find that the storm Saturday wasn't the worse rain event we've ever had here but an event at the end of 2009:

"10.67 inches/hr on 7 Dec 2009 11:35 AM"

It is definitely one of those "when you get around it" sort of requests, but I would like to have this sort of thing listed as a record . . . .  In the meantime, I'd better purge my data of that 23.04" of rain per hour event!  :-[

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

WCDev

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Re: Adding peak rainfall rate to records that are tracked?
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2016, 01:08:56 PM »
Can you expand a little bit? Peak rain rates are listed in the recent and monthly stats (but not on the year over year), also available via tag (as you've pointed out).

Cheers.

elagache

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Howdy Stu and WeatherCat record keepers,

Can you expand a little bit? Peak rain rates are listed in the recent and monthly stats (but not on the year over year), also available via tag (as you've pointed out).

I was thinking about adding the highest recorded rainfall rate to the page of records that is displayed with the STRECORDS$ tag and is available from the statistics menu.  Depending on interest, it might also be interesting to keep track of the annual peak rainfall rate with the same emails as are sent for other annual records.  Might be a good idea to ask the WeatherCat community if there is enough interest for that or not.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. So rush though.  I still haven't purged that silly 23.04" peak rate yet!

monymony

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P.S. So rush though.  I still haven't purged that silly 23.04" peak rate yet!

Your work-around idea is very ingenious.  I tried this on my data and got my crazy but legitimate high rate.  I say this as I remember when it happened thinking how i never have seen such heavy rain just as the tree 20' from my window exploded from lightning.  [lightning]

"30.32 inches/hr on 13 Aug 2013 6:44 AM"

Now to ponder whether to include this information on my website.  [computer]