Tempest app : first experiences

Is there anything we can do to cook up some kind of pseudo Stevenson screen ? Given the location of the solar panels, I’m thinking perhaps not, but is it worth the effort ?

Can we get a skeletal exploded view of the Tempest or a teardown from somebody perhaps ? Where are the actual sensors located ? Can we MacGuyver up something to make the situation better without messing up the readings ?

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You can put the Tempest in a stevenson screen and it will be perfect for humidity and temperature readings if the screen is again set in perfect conditions … but how is the Tempest going to see the light ? Get the wind or hear the rain ???

As mentioned by Tony, Weatherflow has the data to compensate for the shield effects and testing I did proves it is pretty close to a reading I get in my stevenson shield (big enough to hold about 20 Tempest devices). This is because the elements are known and fixed.
For hight compensation it’s another story. The environment isn’t know and so many little details can influence and I don’t think a mathematical model cold include all variants. It isn’t just height.

As Tony stated, most of us can’t have the ‘perfect’ siting (for sure i can’t with so many oaks around and a canal flowing in my garden). And this is the reason why I started fooling with a weather station, the nearest VP2 (in almost prefect siting) just doesn’t reflect what I get in my garden. We can have easily 2°C difference and I don’t talk about humidity levels …now who is right, who is wrong … none are wrong.

And this is what becomes interesting about Weatherflow. The network becomes so populated that all those little differences become visible. And I’m sure over time all those data will help understand the micro evolutions of weather and the growing influence of what the human does by building houses, making roads etc.
And over time we can get more accurate data for our location, something satellites can’t do nor the official stations that are just not dense enough.

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i don’t think that would improve. Assuming weatherflow did their physics, they are going to correct the temp measured inside by the sensor for the amount of solar irradiation it receives (and perhaps the amount of wind that cools it down). If you would shield the temperature sensor, the correction would turn out incorrect.

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Would WeatherFlow consider including the Altimeter pressure reading along with the station pressure and SLP on their app and web app? Plus, could WeatherFlow add a feature within the app or ifttt for the user to upload current conditions to CWOP and Twitter?

If you scroll down the main page both the standardized pressure along with the Station pressure is given.

I think it should be somewhere on top of the screen Bugs : tempest weather app.
but to have three different pressure values is a bit too much. Why would you want an altimeter pressure, are you planning to carry the unit with you while rock climbing?

I know it shows both station and sea-level pressures. The NWS uses Altimeter reading in their reports and I personally like it the best.

Altimeter reading is sea-level pressure when in the region of an airport, ie. QNH. I certainly hope you aren’t relying on it for flying, however.

Altimeter is similar to SLP but it takes the Temp out of the calculation.

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That is how the Sea Level Pressure is calculated. You are asking for an item that is already given.

Sea-Level is using a constant temperature in its calculation. Altimeter doesn’t. I personally like to see all three: Station pressure, SLP, and Altimeter. The link I provided does a good job of explaining why Altimeter is better than SLP.

WeatherFlow did not use temperature in the calculation because temperature is not available in the Sky.

Oh ok. That I didn’t know. Thanks!

I think I might have ran into the formula they use but I’ll see if I can find it.

You can view all the formulas in the API documentation.

4 posts were split to a new topic: Tempest forecast isn’t accurate for everyone

That’s one of the many design problems I have. They shouldn’t mix predictions with measurements like that. In the old version there was a clear and clean separation between the two. With the predictions shown at the bottom.

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I note that in the new app, whether you are on the weather forecast or spin to data page there is no reference to the last update of data from the hub.

In the mobile app , bottom right it says online, on the web interface nothing.

In the old app when you swapped to further information it advised the last update from the hub. I have found this invaluable to ensure that what I am reading is up to date. I appreciate the forecast moves with the hour and therefore can see the data is recent but when you have / or had communication issues the time line update is super effective.

Like wise it would be easier to to allow a third screen as was old system with all that lovely data :slight_smile:

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As many people see all kind of problems with the new app, I just wanted to suggest my photoshopped version. I simply added an optional panel with the hourly forecast, which more or less is the most visible thing that was added to the new app. The multi-day forecast at the bottom could just be using the newer 10 day forecast data and doesn’t need replacing. If you scoll to the right of that there is the view more button which could go to the detailed 10 day forecast (which includes the hourly forecast 10 days ahead). With my photoshopped version I don’t see any need for the, in my opinion, confusing layout of the new app. If really needed you could add an optional pane for hourly wind conditions as well.

If you still want to keep the new layout, I think adding the option display the hourly data would still be very nice.

Replacing the multi-day forecast data with the newer forecast data would be a good idea anyway, so there is no difference. (just the data, not the layout)

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On the card display I only see it if the data is stale. If no age is given it is current. I haven’t, however seen anything similar on the forecast page.

@gizmoev.

This is what I was referring to

“On the card display i only see it if the data is stale”. That is an interesting observation !. Guess I will have to wait to see it.

" I haven’t, however seen anything similar on the forecast page." Scroll down to the very bottom of forecast page to see the “online”

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