[wxqc] Station Climate Data Files

[dshelms at comcast.net]

Hi Chris,

Real-time monitoring of the atmosphere has its benefits, but understanding the content of our observations is a worthwhile effort too.  I use the NWS "Local Climate Data" format (Form "F-6") to message my data.  The process is a bit tedious to get the climate data into Excel, I display the monthly data using the WeatherDisplay "NOAA Format", swipe and copy the data onto the clipboard, paste into notepad, save the notepad file as *.txt, import the monthly *.txt file into Excel, and finally copy the raw unprocessed daily data from the imported *.txt file into my "master"template Excel climate file (once this is done, I throw away the temporary *.txt Excel file, but keep the Notepad file as a backup to the master Excel file).  

I don't use the WeatherDisplay mean or summation totals, but use Excel to do this.  WD uses the average of all entries (10 minute updates) in the daily log to caluculate the average daily temp, while NOAA calculates the mean from the high and low temp ONLY (this is because many of the COOP stations  only have these data, not a running log).  We can compare our means to the NWS, we should use their algorithms to calculate our climate summaries.  I update my precip totals (merging my 4" rain bucket and Peet Ultimeter Pro automated gauge data as the "best guess" daily total) in the "master" Excel rather than Wd since editing data files can be problematic.

All this takes about 30 minutes every month (once I have a template file setup).  It helps to have someone like Brian Smith/WBCR who is waiting for the data to motivate me to clean everything up for public consumption.  


Glad I can help!

Dave
CW0351

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Chris Topf <topfcd at yahoo.com>
> Dave,
>   thanks for the template submission.  I have had my VP2 weather station for 
> about 10 months now and I have been a little disappointed in the climate 
> reporting features of the Weatherlink software.  I like the overall report, but 
> I am disappointed in that it doesn't contain the mean temp calculation like the 
> NWS office monthly reports do and that I can't export the report in a 
> tab-delimited format so I don't have to manually re-type the information into a 
> spreadsheet.
>   I think you've inspired me to embark on a climate project for my station!  
> Although I've only had my VP2 for 10 months, I've been maintaining precipitation 
> records for 10 years this July.  Wow, hard to believe it's been that long!
>   
> Chris
>   CW3603
> 
> Dave Helms <dshelms at comcast.net> wrote:
>   Hi All:
> 
> Hey... is February 1st, time to start your 2006 climate data collection 
> and processing!
> 
> My data logging application does not really do what I want it to do so I 
> developed my own Excel spread sheet and I populate it every month. Over 
> the last several years I have developed a modest station climatology of 
> 4 years by borrowing from the Baltimore-Washington Internationals (BWI) 
> station means and using the station's data as a temporary climatology 
> baseline (in another 6 years I will have enough statistics to form my 
> own station's stats). I monitor BWI climate data and other area 
> stations to see if my data are in the ball-park.
> 
> Here are some examples of the Excel files I have developed for 
> processing my station's climate data:
> 
> CW0351 Station Summary for 2005:
> http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brookevilleweather/2005_brookeville-md.xls
> 
> CW0351 Template file for 2006 monthly climate data: note I added daily 
> mean max/min temperatures this year
> http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brookevilleweather/2006_blank_brookeville-md.xls
> 
> Feel free to download the Excel templates and modify them for your 
> uses. You can find reference climate data on you local NWS Weather 
> Forecast Office web page or go to the National Climate Data Center 
> (NCDC) and order the closest COOP station climatology.
> 
> Local Climate "Clubs": I belong to the Washington-Baltimore Climate 
> Review (WBCR) which has a 20+ year history of documenting the DC Metro 
> weather, quite an impressive group run by Brian Smith 
> (bgs11111 at erols.com). Brian compiles data from 200 area stations, plots 
> the data and manually contours the data then snail-mails copies of his 
> analyzes every month. I encourage everyone to see if there are any 
> local climate groups to participate in!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Dave
> CW0351
> 
> 
> 
> 
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