Afraid, the lack of accuracy has little and nothing to do with the app
itself. The app only checks on the info provided by a website. Far as my
memory goes, the website in question is WeatherUnderground.com.
Around the globe, several thousands of weatherstations are located at big
and small places. Each of these stations, will report their information to
the web service - WeatherUnderground - and as I said, the app will check the
webpage instead of you having to do it manually.
Now, there is a few reasons, why your local, actual, weather conditions do
not match what the web page (and in turn the app) will report. Here is a
handful such reasons.
1. How often is the local weather station being read. Sometimes the
information send to the web page is being updated with only a few minutes
interval; whilst other stations do their reading once, or afew times a day.
2. Where is the nearest station located, compared to your physical position.
Even if you are in the same city, the weather conditions might vary slightly
from one end of the city, to the other. For instance, if the weather station
is located at, or near sea level, the temperature and humidity might be
slightly higher than at your physical address several hundred feets above
sea level. Likewise, mountains, forrest, lakes, rivers, open plains - they
all could affect wind conditions, rainstorms and so forht, being different
from one place to another; even if the two locations might be pretty close
in distance.
3. Most weather stations are typically located at the local airport. Again,
most local airports, are located somehow outside the actual city. That
means, if you want to hook up on a weather point like Toronto, Canada -
well, it says Toronto, but the airport is some miles outside the city
itself. Again, if now you lived on the strict opposite side of the city, the
distance between you and the weather point, might be rather big; even though
both you and the weather point are told to be in the same city. Fact is, in
my city, the airport is located close to 40km, 25 miles, outside the city
itself; and I live even on the other side of the city, meaning that the
distance will be noticeable; hence the weather could be rather different.
4. How accurate is the weather actually being reported to the web service.
Not all stations are automated. That is, some might be manually read by
people, who then would punch in the informattion on their computer, and send
it to services like WeatherUnderground.com. In cases like this, maybe only
given information is updated at any time. 'I.e, they might update the
temperature every hour, but the cloud conditions might not be updated more
than three times a day, when there is significant changes going on. On
automated stations, this will hardly ever be the case, since such stations
would be installed and set up, to make a complete scan of the whole station,
at given intervals. Big cities, with heavy airline trafic, will naturally
have their automated scans, rather frequently. In smaller places, with
little regularity in airline traffic, or with no other heavy need for
all-up-to-date information at any given time, the scans and updates might be
more rare, and unreliable. If the station is manual, it might even be a
matter of personal judgement from the personel, as to whether a rainstorm is
heavy, or just regular for the season.
5. In cases where not all instruments are scanned at any given interval,
there is a couple of scenarios, that could take place. And it will differ
from one station to the other. Let's say, the wind conditions are scanned
every 30 minutes, but the temperature will only be scanned every fourth
hour. This could be the case, in places where the wind tends to be extremely
unstabil, whilst the temperature pretty much stays the same. Well, you check
the weather at 08:00AM. It tells you, the wind is 30 miles an hour, and the
temperature is 25 degrees. At 08:30AM, you check the conditions again. Now
you might see the wind being reported as 20 miles an hour - because the wind
actually has lowered, and is being monitored this often - whilst the
temperature has not been monitored, and still will show up as 25 degrees;
even if the sun has come out and the actual temperature has raised to 32.
The other scenario is, that since the information has been updated at 08:30,
but there was no information from the temperature, due to its not being
monitored this often, it will be showing up as something like 0 or minus 99.
Typically, if you see values like that, and you find them definitely not to
be matching actual conditions, deduct that they might not have been
monitored, and hence the system will have set them to a 'default' value.
Again, little and nothing is wrong with you, the app, or the web page. The
app and web page, only present you the information received. And you, are in
most cases the best weather station for your very local conditions at any
time and place. Smile! No need to despair. Nothing to be fixed or adjusted,
anywhere. If you - over time - find that the local, or nearest, weather
station is too unreliable, you might want to try the ssecond nearest or
otherwise alternative stations in your surrounding area. You might be on the
same side of a mountain, lake, river, forrest or whatever, as the
neighboring city and its airport. In such cases, that one would prove more
accurate for your local conditions, than would the one that is closest to
you in distance, but which would be located on the other side of such
'weather fences'.
Lengthy explanation - I agree. The question though, seem to come up on the
list, ever so often, in different shapes. My hope is, that this will cover
most of these questions, and put people in general on ease.
Be aware, that the web service might experience trouble, sometimes for a few
days. So don't please, despair just because the reported weather is not
accurate for a day or two. Whatever would be the reason for your location
not being properly reported, also keep in mind, that there is a good portion
of websites like WeatherUnderground, on the net. Some are international,
like the one here discussed, others are national, or even more regional.
They might be more or less - and maybe rather often LESS - official. That
is, they are meant as public 'for the fun of it' sites. Hence, the
information derived therefrom, should only be viewed as a public service,
and not be taken for an officially, fully reliable service. More to be
accepted as a guideline, than a factual service.
----- Original Message -----
From: "chris hallsworth" <[email protected]>
To: "Morne Van der Merwe" <[email protected]>
Cc: "GW Info Discussion List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2011 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: weather or not app
Hi all.
I suggest you use a postcode for the location rather than the city or
country. I installed it last night and added my postcode. It is fantastic.
Much better than a feature found in the competition.
Take care.
Chris Hallsworth
Sent from Thunderbird
On 30/05/2011 21:35, Morne Van der Merwe wrote:
Hi list,
I've just instaled the weather or not app from GW's website. I live
in Worcester South Africa. i've tried it but according to me it's not
very accurate. According to the app there is no wind outside although
we are havin a hell of a storm outside with rain. Is there a way that
I can make the app more accurate? For exmple, according to the app
the wind is 0.00 kph but there is a gale force wind outside.
Regards--
"Die lewenspad is die snelweg waarop die meeste ongelukke plaasvind. -
Morné van der Merwe"
-Morné van der Merwe
Posbus/PO Box/Posxtkesto 2036
Dennesig
Stellenbosch
7601
Suid-Afrika/South Africa/Sudafriko
Selfoon/Cell phone/Mobiltelefono: +27 (0)72-119-4488
E-pos/E mail/Retadreso:
[email protected]
Skype: mornevdm
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