The Harlemville Weather Station Logbook – A record of malfunction, maintenance and irregularities.
19 April 2023 Again for some reason, station time is off; reset on this date. Has been off for a while.
June 2022 For some reason, the station time/date appears to be off; this is reset on 17 June, but not until after an unknown amount of time. Weatherunderground data seemed OK, even before reset but the weatherlink archive looked screwy.
2 July 2021 I realize that a Japanese Rose Beetle had gotten stuck in the rain guage and it was plugged. I remove the beetle and the accumulated rain drains and is counted. The total rain measurement should be more or less accurate for 1/2 July, but it did not arrive in a sudden cloudburst.
For unknown reasons, internet communication ceased on 16 Nov.; a 30 Nov. reboot renewed the connection. Data from 05:00 16 Nov to 13:00 21 Nov were lost.
30 Oct 2020 Most of the month rainfall did not measure because a cute little jumping spider had built its web coccoon underneath the rain arm - 'gluing' it open. Removed the webing this afternoon. Based on nearby stations, probably missed ca. 3.3".
7 Dec 2018 Correct data download issue (by deleting files with faulty dates from weatherp folder). Because data logger was at capacity the above date range is missing direct data download.
22-27 Nov Data outage because of download snafu; however, data was being sent to WeatherLink and I have downloaded the data for that period from there.
18 Nov 2018, ca. 16:45. Replace all sensors (except solar) and the transmitter. Still needs some tweaks but done for the night.
11 Nov 2018, ca. noon. Cows tackle weather station and dismantle anemometer and knock about solar panel. Wind speed and direction are knocked out. Other features remain. Replacements ordered.
8 - 23 Jan 2018 Crooked weather station, miss rainfall events until, during raind, the weather station is righted on the 23rd. Estimated missed rain over this period, based on nearby weather station reports, ca. 2.75". Wind data may also be somewhat inaccurate.
18 Oct 2017 Re-adjust weather station which was crooked, with the wind vane pointing about 164 degrees east of north. Noticed this issue a few days ago, not sure when it happened.
17 May 2017. Cows knock down and break parts of the weather station. It is brought inside over night on the 18th, and put back outside on the 19th. By PM on 23rd, it might be working again but is located by picnic table near backdoor. Any rain between 17 May and AM of 24 May is just testing of the device. A bit (<.25") of actual rain during this period.
17 July 2016. Re-orient the rain gauge relative to the wind vane. Birds have been sitting on the wind vane and pooping in the rain gauge. It has been clogging and, on a couple of occasions, I noticed there was no rain recorded after a rainfall and, upon inspection, realized it had backed up because of blockage. Two blue-sky 'deluges' this summer, one on this date, were due to me unplugging the rain gauge after there had been blockage. Also, I believe the wind vane was regularly throwing a brief shadow across the sun sensor.
2 July 2015 7:10PM functioning sensors reinstalled
Friday, 5 June 2015, Remove outdoor temp and humidity sensors to send to Davis for repairs.
Spring 2015, rain gauge out of line for first rain of <.5"
Beginning winter 2014-2015, the outdoor humidity sensor has been on the fritz; sometimes up, sometimes down.
Tuesday 11 Mar 2014 6:32pm – realize that the console clock has been 3hrs 54 mins slow. Not sure when it started, perhaps during a previous outage. Re-set clock.
Tuesday 24 Sept. 2013 9pm – Friday 27 Sept. 4pm – no or spotty reading. Base station had been accidentally unplugged its batteries had drained.
Summer 2013 – a 2-3 day period with faulty rain readings. (not reading)
1 July 2012 – Replace cr123 battery; clean funnel and dip cups.
Starting ca 24 June 2012 -- Spotty transmission; will replace battery.
17 August – 20 Sept 2011– The weather station is generally working fine and survives Hurricane Irene, however changes in website structure mean that automatic updating doesn’t occur. It takes a while before this snafu gets untangled. Historical files should be accurate because even though the web page wasn’t updating, the weather data were archived.
10 July 2011-17 July 2011 – I’m out of town, computer asleep, no weather this week.
3 June 2011 – Replace 3v Lithium battery in station.
Starting ca. 25 May 2011 – spotty transmission – am looking into battery replacement.
22 April 2011 -- Moved station slightly, locating it at corner of vegetable field, between electric fences, hopefully out of the way of both plough and irrigation.
10-15 March 2011: We seem to be having some problems with the rain gauge. During our weekend rain, it was not recording precipitation. I remove the station from the field and bring it up to the house for closer observation, including some testing of the rain gauge (which accounts for the apparent cloud bursts around noon on the 16th and around 7 am on the 17th. Temperature, humidity and windspeed should be relatively unaffected; wind direction and solar radiation are slightly impaired by its current location. The gauge seems to be working. Was it just temporarily stuck?
6 March 2011: Rain and then freezing; the apparent end of precipitation around 6pm was due to freezing over of the weather station. Wind speed and direction measurements were likewise locked up until released on the afternoon of the 7th.
By 1 July 2010, weather station installed at current location in Dr's Field. Prior to that (starting Jan 2010) it was at our Canaan house for a while and then located adjacent to Creekhouse.