We had .95 of an inch of rain over the past 24 hours (as of 6am) which is the most we received in any 24 hour period this month. This brings us to 2.19 inches which is still below normal for August. We have had 12.17 inches so far during the MET summer with June being the wettest month.
These are all the official CoCoRaHS station reports from my data. For those of you who use digital rain gauges there is a reason CoCoRaHS doesn’t allow readings from them – there always seems to be a discrepancies between the two sometimes as much as a quarter inch as with yesterdays readings which I would say comes from heavier rain which may fall – location is also important.
Rain gauges are not all created equal and do not all report the same. The Colorado Climate Center has been involved in rain gauge studies for many years and have had dozens of volunteers test their automated gauges against either the CoCoRaHS 4″ diameter gauge or the National Weather Service (NWS) 8″ diameter Standard Rain Gauge. They have also tested National Weather Service Automated Surface Observing System tipping bucket rain gauges (not unlike the tipping bucket gauges that come with most home weather stations, but sturdier and a lot more expensive).
While the NWS and CoCoRaHS gauges compare quite well with each other (tests indicate that the CoCoRaHS gauge has a collection efficiency of 101-105% compared to the standard NWS gauge), the majority of automated rain gauges, when summed over several months or years, report less precipitation than actually fell by a significant amount — sometimes 25% or more. Moreover, none of the automated gauges work well in areas that receive snow. This is not acceptable for the CoCoRaHS project because they are interested in observing and understanding natural precipitation variability, as accurately as possible. If we’re all using different kinds of gauges with different abilities to catch precipitation, it’s too hard to determine if differences in rain or snowfall are “real” or due to the kind of instrument that was used to report the measurement. This is why reporters use an ‘official’ 4 inch diameter funnel gauge.
We have a few light showers moving through this morning with a warm temp of 68° at 6am. As the day progresses we will have the winds pick up out of the west and we will dry out. Our next chance of rain will come Thursday night.
It feels like Fall is in the air! Couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day. 🙂
Currently 70* degrees out at thee YARDofBRICKS NE of GR another cool nice sleeping night ahead who don’t love late Summer …INDY
Well I was going to try and figure out the past couple days average temp by using the hourly temp dived by 24, but for some reason the GR NWS hourly report has been missing several hours during the past couple days. Yesterday there were 6 hours without a report.
Got a few sprinkles this morning. Sun came out and the temp soared to 82°. Not too shabby for this time of year. Looking forward to the long holiday weekend. One last summer hurrah. BTW, the kids are less than thrilled being back in school.
Made it to 80 here. First half of the day was pretty humid, but now the air is drying out some.
Currently 4pm 74* degrees and sunny out at thee YARDofBRICKS NE of GR it’s beautiful outside Summer can feel like this all Summer long ..Who needs the heat and humidity… “Incredible” INDY ..
Wait a minute as accurate as some have to be on here or by the book your philosophies get blown out the window sorry …lol… Currently it’s 71* Beautiful cool degrees YARDOfBRICKS NE of GR ..INDY
Do you even have any idea what we’re talking about? Go back a few days and read the conversation Slim and I had. We’re still waiting for a response for Slims message to the NWS.
BTW the CFSv2 is showing a two week cool spell then warm for at least 2 weeks in mid September.
Slim
Note as my official gauge had been broken I have only sent in reports on days we did not get any rain. Note that the same can be said for temperature readings as well. While most thermometers are reasonably accurate they are not calibrated to be as accurate as the ones the NWS uses for their readings. And location is also very important
Slim
I do not have a rain fall measurement for my house from last nights rain fall as I have to order and new CCoCoRaHS gauge as the bottom of the tube broke. And last night my digital rain gauge also malfunctioned as it had gotten some little critters in it. But in looking at other reading in my area it looks like around 0.50” of rain fell. With clear skies the temperature here at my house is now 73.
Slim
ADA- all gauges showing one inch of rainfall. The yard and gardens needed it.
On another quiet weather day, I would like to talk about the NWS way of keeping temps. At best, their method is outdated and, at the worst, it is completely misleading.
To say that an “average temperature” of the day is simply the average between the min and the max daily temp is horribly inaccurate. We could experience 23 hours of warmth before a cold front passes through, and yet the record could say we were below average due to the low temp with the cold front. Moreover, a cold overnight period can often influence two days of average temperatures. This is because, on a cold night, it can be colder at 11:59pm than the previous overnight period. For this reason, the current NWS method of recording daily temps gives more weight to cold overnight temps than warm overnight temps. That’s because a warm overnight will only count as a min temperature for the day if it is still warmer than the next night until 11:59pm. Further, we often see low temp outliers that barely last a few minutes. Cold fronts can quickly drop temps 20 or 30 degrees in a matter of minutes and skew the averages of the entire day. This usually cannot happen with the max temperature of the day. We don’t suddenly see bursts where temps climb 20 or 30 in minutes.
A simple solution would be to divide the day into 24 hours and to record an average temperature for each of these hours. Then, the NWS could take the average out of all 24 of these.
Yeah I agree if that is the way they figure the daily average. We’re still waiting to hear back from Slims question to the NWS for confirmation on how they do it, but if they do indeed just divide the high and low by 2, it could end up quite inaccurate. Most days they might be close, but on days with wild temp swings that might only make up a small fraction of the day, that seems a very poor way of calculating. When compared over the course of months or years, you would end up with very different numbers.
I agree 100%. I also think a 24 hour average would be a better way to measure dewpoint and humidity. A min and max average has no way of doing that, but a 24 hour average will clearly illustrate a muggy day with consistent warm temps and a warm overnight.
The numbers would be different but not always on the warmer side. There are many days day in the winter were the high is at or just past midnight and the rest of the day is much colder and there are other days in the cold months where the high might be for just one hour and the rest of the day is much colder and do not forget there are days when the high and or low happen between readings and what happens then do you divide by 25 or 26??? I will wait and see if we get a official response.
Slim
First off, I agree that using a 24-hour reading would be more accurate way to do an average daily temperature but remember many times the average will be cooler than just adding the high/low divided by two. There are many days in the cooler seasons (October to March) where the high is reached between hourly readings in the same can be said for the low and that can happen in any season. But in the cool seasons there can be many hours of colder temperatures and then jus one or two “warm” hours during the day (or even the night) As for 20 to 30° temperature drops in a few minutes that is very rare here in Michigan and happens more on hot days in the summer time when a thunderstorm rolls thru. In other words I still so not know how the NWS the daily average but in looking at the averages I would say for the most part they just add the high low and divide by two. Just remember if they do or went to using the 24 hour one that the average would NOT always be warmer then the high/Low by two.
Slim
Looked like we were going to be skunked with the rain yesterday. Only 0.11” until a shower came through about 10:30 last night and brought the total up to just over a half of an inch. Back to warm and very humid this morning, barely fell below 70 overnight.
Daytime highs cooler then avagage through Labor day interesting the month of August could end up below normal wow or what Rocky loves saying “Incredible” ..We had soaking rain over night grass cutting day ahead love the sounds of school buses going down the street soon they will be sliding on by have a super Tuesday ..INDY
What? August may end up around normal or below for temps! How is that possible with all the talk of heat and 90 degree temps? Facts matter! Keep the facts rocking n rolling!