STORM2K

As I was looking outside, I thought of the rate of snowfall. As far as I know, humans are still needed to do this. Then I thought why are weather stations not able to measure rate of snow/rain/etc. yet? It's possible if they design it correctly. It would be pretty cool to get seconds updates for it while watching a blizzard, LES event, tropical system, freezing rain event, etc.

I checked google and there is already a patent for it: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7249502.html

Cyclenall wrote:As I was looking outside, I thought of the rate of snowfall. As far as I know, humans are still needed to do this. Then I thought why are weather stations not able to measure rate of snow/rain/etc. yet? It's possible if they design it correctly. It would be pretty cool to get seconds updates for it while watching a blizzard, LES event, tropical system, freezing rain event, etc.

I checked google and there is already a patent for it: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7249502.html

There are weather stations that measure rainfall rates. I would assume they work with snow as well, but since snow is foreign to me, I'll leave that to someone else.

Our local station, KFDM, has weather stations placed all over Southeast Texas. While the rainfall rate clearly malfunctions on some of them (it will show 0.00"/hr or a very low rate when I know it's pouring down rain at that location), but many of them are often working when I check them. We get really heavy rain here and they will go up and down during the storm with a simple refresh of the page. I've seen some amazing rainfall rates during the heavier events that cause flash flooding.

southerngale wrote:

Cyclenall wrote:As I was looking outside, I thought of the rate of snowfall. As far as I know, humans are still needed to do this. Then I thought why are weather stations not able to measure rate of snow/rain/etc. yet? It's possible if they design it correctly. It would be pretty cool to get seconds updates for it while watching a blizzard, LES event, tropical system, freezing rain event, etc.

I checked google and there is already a patent for it: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7249502.html

There are weather stations that measure rainfall rates. I would assume they work with snow as well, but since snow is foreign to me, I'll leave that to someone else.

Our local station, KFDM, has weather stations placed all over Southeast Texas. While the rainfall rate clearly malfunctions on some of them (it will show 0.00"/hr or a very low rate when I know it's pouring down rain at that location), but many of them are often working when I check them. We get really heavy rain here and they will go up and down during the storm with a simple refresh of the page. I've seen some amazing rainfall rates during the heavier events that cause flash flooding.

Is the data recorded for archiving? And what increment do they plot it as (second, minute, hour, etc.)? I haven't seen this in any weather stations here in Canada for anything.

Unfortunately, I don't think they're recorded for archiving, at least the ones that KFDM own. When I've seen impressive rain rates, I have wondered if I'm witnessing the highest ones, or if I missed the highest rates. I couldn't find a way to determine that. I really don't know about other ones or other places as these are the ones I use all the time.
It's plotted as per hour, but of course, it's ever-changing throughout each hour.

southerngale wrote:Unfortunately, I don't think they're recorded for archiving, at least the ones that KFDM own. When I've seen impressive rain rates, I have wondered if I'm witnessing the highest ones, or if I missed the highest rates. I couldn't find a way to determine that. I really don't know about other ones or other places as these are the ones I use all the time.
It's plotted as per hour, but of course, it's ever-changing throughout each hour.

Yeah, they should start recording it every 1 minute and archiving that type of data.

I knew the data was plotted as per hour, I meant how often does it update throughout the hour?

I just found that the Davis Vantage Pro II does record rain rate, but I wonder about hail, snow, and other types. I haven't found professional ones used by towns and cities using it here. Another idea could be the rate in which the pressure falls, and winds go higher which would be perfect in a land falling tropical cyclone.

Cyclenall wrote:

southerngale wrote:Unfortunately, I don't think they're recorded for archiving, at least the ones that KFDM own. When I've seen impressive rain rates, I have wondered if I'm witnessing the highest ones, or if I missed the highest rates. I couldn't find a way to determine that. I really don't know about other ones or other places as these are the ones I use all the time.
It's plotted as per hour, but of course, it's ever-changing throughout each hour.

Yeah, they should start recording it every 1 minute and archiving that type of data.

I knew the data was plotted as per hour, I meant how often does it update throughout the hour?

I just found that the Davis Vantage Pro II does record rain rate, but I wonder about hail, snow, and other types. I haven't found professional ones used by towns and cities using it here. Another idea could be the rate in which the pressure falls, and winds go higher which would be perfect in a land falling tropical cyclone.

Oh... I don't know. I do know that I have hit refresh pretty much constantly and it changes often. I don't know if it's every second, every ten seconds or what, but I know that it changes more than once per minute because of the quick fluctuation in rates I've seen.

southerngale wrote:Oh... I don't know. I do know that I have hit refresh pretty much constantly and it changes often. I don't know if it's every second, every ten seconds or what, but I know that it changes more than once per minute because of the quick fluctuation in rates I've seen.

I'd think so too. Thanks for the info.