Karl Uppiano

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Sunday, October 7, 2007

Weather Underground Rapid Fire Issues
For weather stations that observe continuously (such as every second) but post wind data periodically (such as every 10 minutes), METAR recommends posting the mean value observed over the previous two minutes, and the peak value observed in the last ten minutes (or since the last report). Weather stations that observe continuously and post continuously (such as every second), post the current value.
 
Weather Underground Rapid Fire is an example of the latter. Weather stations can post data as often as once a second. This works fine for the Rapid Fire browser gadgets, such as the 5 Minute Wind Interval graph, updated continuously.
 
Weather Underground has a problem with the personal weather station history graphs in Rapid Fire mode. The personal weather station history graphs chart the continuously posted data every five minutes, apparently discarding the intervening data. If they are going to sample the continuous data every five minutes, then the sampling function needs to average all of the samples received in the previous two minutes and peak-hold all of the samples received in the previous five minutes. Otherwise, gusts will be missed between samples. When sampling continuous data, it is very important to ensure that the sampling process does not discard data.
11:37 am pdt


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Welcome!
This site is dedicated to my interest in engineering. I use it as a place to just put stuff "out there" for anyone who might be interested, as well as a job search tool. This page contains my engineering web log (to your left). Anything that seems timeless enough, or too involved for a log entry may get it's own page as a full-blown article. And, of course, my resume is here for anyone who might be considering hiring me to do something. Email me.

About Me
I have worked as a broadcast engineer, electronics designer (analog and digital) and software developer. I especially enjoy audio engineering, although I've been writing software for the last several years, since that's where the opportunities are in the Pacific Northwest (this is Microsoft country after all). I'm currently working as a Senior Staff Engineer -- Resume at another large independent software vendor in Washington State.

Futurama Web Site
(not my best side)

I majored in mathematics and physics in college. Other interests include music appreciation (baroque, classical and early romantic, ragtime, and 60's and 70's rock & roll), high fidelity audio electronics, meteorology and of course, computing hardware and software. I tend to think a lot like this guy.