About DaculaWeather.com
The Location of Dacula Georgia
The City of Dacula is a suburb of Atlanta Georgia
and is located in northeast Gwinnett County and
is approximately 50 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The weather station is located 2.5
miles east of Hwy 316 on Harbins Road and is located in Crystal Ridge Estates Subdivision. Gwinnett
County is very likely Atlanta's most fun filled destination. If you want sports and action, check out AAA baseball
with the Gwinnett
Braves and minor league hockey with the Gwinnett Gladiators.
There's hiking, biking and water sports at nearby Stone Mountain
Park, Ft Yargo State Park, or Lake Lanier Islands,
or visit one of the 40 parks at Gwinnett
Parks & Recreation - named the #1 Parks system in the nation, while Gwinnett
County School System was recently picked as one of the top five urban school systems in the country.
Shoppers will have a field day - choose from the nations 25th largest, Mall of Georgia - or Discover Mills, The Forum Shops, the Avenue at Webb Gin or Gwinnett Place Mall. Gwinnett's an easy drive into Atlanta and the great attractions of downtown, including the Georgia Aquarium, World of Coke, Centennial Olympic Park and Turner Field.
History of DaculaWeather.com
The DaculaWeather.com website was created in late February of 2008 and went online around the first of March. The site went through several revisions as I learned the ropes of operating a weather site. You learn tips and tricks as you go and the site evolves as you apply the knowledge you get from other sites and site owners. The live conditions updates on this site are all dependant on an AJAX script written by Ken True at Saratogaweather.org. Without Ken, this site and many others, would not be displaying live updates. In October of 2009 the site went though it's first major revision, and is what you see today. I'm in the process of slowly cleaning up the code and making sure the CSS code is compliant with the current standards. I've tested with all major current browsers and it should work correctly, however, I have not tested with Internet Explorer 6 and have no plans to make anything backward compatible with that version. Anyone using version 6 should not be... :-)
Weather Station Hardware
The first weather station was an Oregon Scientific WMR100b that was purchased in January 2008. While not considered to be the most reliable or accurate weather station, it worked well for about a year or so and was a good starter weather station. Before anyone makes a decision on a weather station purchase, please visit WXForun.net for lots of friendly advice and knowledge. Weather stations vary quite a bit and picking the right one for your budget can be a stab in the dark if you are unfamiliar with all of the issues.
Update Interval by Sensor |
|||
Sensor |
Reading |
Update Time |
Resolution |
Barometer |
Barometric Pressure |
1 min. |
.01" Hg |
Humidity |
Inside Humidity |
50 sec. |
1% |
Outside Humidity |
50 sec. |
1% |
|
Dew Point |
10 sec. |
1° F |
|
Rain |
Rainfall Amount |
20 sec. |
.01" |
Rain Storm Amount |
20 sec. |
|
|
Rain Rate |
20 sec. |
.01" |
|
Temperature |
Inside Temperature |
1 min. |
.1° |
Outside Temperature |
10 sec. |
.1° |
|
Heat Index |
10 sec. |
1° F |
|
Wind Chill |
10 sec |
1° F |
|
Wind |
Wind Speed |
2.5 sec. |
1 mph |
Wind Direction |
2.5 sec. |
22.5° |
|
Direction of Wind |
2.5 sec. |
1° |
|
Over time the temperature sensor began to drift and became unreliable and I decided that an upgrade was in order. In October 2009 I purchased a Davis 6250 Vantage Vue from Ambient Weather. The Vue communicates through the Davis 6510 Serial Port Datalogger to a serial port on the PC.
Vue 6250 Sensor
The Vue can communicate with and display information from other Vantage consoles, so it gives it an sensor upgrade path. By itself, you can only use the sensor suite (6357). A comparison of the accuracy and resolution of the Vue sensors compared to the other Vantage products shows the Vue sacrifices nothing to it's more expensive siblings. It appears from the specifications that the actual sensors are from the Vantage Pro. I will report on how things go as time goes on.
The table to the left shows how frequently the sensors update and their measurement resolution. The Virtual Weather software updates the conditions every 4 seconds while the AJAX script checks for updates sent to the website every 4 seconds. It's as close to real time as you can get.
The sensors are installed at 1040 feet above sea-level at the following coordinates:
Latitude: 33° 57' 12" N (deg min sec), 33.95335° (decimal), 3357.20N (LORAN)
Longitude: 83° 51' 26" W (deg min sec), -83.85710° (decimal), 08351.43W (LORAN)
The sensor suite is located approximately 60 feet from the base station and is mounted 9.0 feet high on a galvanized steel pole. The pole is filled with concrete so it cannot flex in the wind and has three guide wires to help keep things steady. It sits at the edge of the yard above grass and is at least 20 feet away from any vegetation of equal height. As in most personal weather stations, sensor location is always a compromise. CWOP Weather Station Siting, Performance, and Data Quality Guide gives this site a score of 18 out of 30. The chart below shows the ideal locations compared to the actual sensor location:
CWOP Location Comparison |
|||
Sensor |
Optimal location |
This Site |
CWOP Score |
Wind Speed and Direction |
32' above ground. No obstructions |
In open 9' above the ground |
4 |
Temperature and Humidity |
In open, 5 feet above grass w/fan aspirated temp sensor |
Non-fan aspirated shielded temp sensor, In open 9' above the ground |
7 |
Rainfall |
In open, 2 feet above grass. |
In open, 9' above the ground |
8 |
The weather computer is a Dell Dimension E510 with 1GB of ram and a 320GB SATA drive running Windows Media Center XP SP3. It was originally setup as a music server but now functions as a weather server. I added a StarTech 2 port PCI serial card for communications to the Davis serial data logger. The computer uses a wireless connection from a Linksys USB wireless network adapter to a Netgear wireless router connected to a Comcast cable modem. Basically, everything is wireless from the sensors to the router. I have plans on building a mini-itx low-power computer to replace the current desktop and will allow for extended run-time on an APC UPS.
Weather Station Software
I currently use Virtual Weather Station (VWS) version 14.01 p25 from Ambient Weather for all of the live website updates.The site uses a combination of 4 second data uploads that are read by an AJAX javascript that runs on any of the web pages that displays "Current Conditions". There are automated scripts that run to display advisories, watches and warnings, and those will be displayed below the menu at the top of most of the main pages. VWS also sends my weather data to Wunderground.com, Hamweather.com, and CWOP (Citizen Weather Observation Program). Weather Link v5.9 is the Davis software that was used in the setup of the console. I have installed VirtualVP software that allows multiple weather station software packages to communicate simultaneously with the Vue. StartWatch manages the loading and monitoring of all my weather applications for problems and freezes. Just recently I installed Weather Display to add additional functionality to the web site.
Other Sites Using DaculaWeather Data
Weather data and observations from DaculaWeather.com are also transmitted and shared with these weather agencies and weather information servces: around the country.
NWS SKYWARN® Spotter - Spotter Network 7899
Weather Underground (Station KGADACUL3) - Featured site for Dacula - with "Rapid Fire"
Southeastern Weather Network - Member
North American Weather Network - Member
AWEKAS - Automatic Weather Map System Member
Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) (DW3642) and from there to:
NOAA MESONET (DW3642)
NOAA MADIS (D3642)
National Weather Service Atlanta - Listed on the NWS Atlanta site (D3642)
Centerville Elementary School - Using weather stickers from this site.
My weather information is quality checked by comparing my data with other reference stations in the region. I am notified should my information drift outside certain parameters so that I can take corrective actions. It also helps to validate my sensor calibrations to insure my information is as accurate as possible. My current quality status can be viewed here Two thumbs up for data quality is the best you can get.
You can also follow the weather on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/daculaweather and on the Dacula Weather blog at http://daculaweather.blogspot.com.
Credits and Special Thanks
There are many people to thank for their help and assistance in the creation of this website. Listed below are just a few of those:
- Danny Crum at Eldoradocountyweather.com - Many, many thanks for his scripts, assistance and patience with me in setting up the radar and Flash loops. He's a great programmer and a great person and I can't say thank you enough.
- Ken True at Saratoga-Weather.org - Many, many thanks to Ken for his AJAX/PHP scripts and all of his helpful programming tips, tricks and coding troubleshooting. I couldn't do any of this without Ken's help and expertise.
- Larry at Anole Computer/St. James City Weather - For his weather graphic PHP script that I use for my weather stickers.
- Bashewa Weather - For his cloud conditions script that's used on the opening page.
- Weather Underground - Thank you for the generous use of your maps. I hope everyone will take the time to go to the Weather Underground website and explore all of information that's available.
- Hamweather.com - Once again for their generous use of their videos and images. For those of you that wish to add more presence to you website, visit Hamweather to get more information.
- WXForum.net - Thank you to all it's members for answering questions and offering helpful suggestions every step of the way.
DaculaWeather.com is privately owned and operated and is not affiliated with the City of Dacula or with any official government agency. The use of this site is provided as a public service for Dacula and the Gwinnett County area residents and should never be used to make any important weather related decisions.
