The wind speed unit is user selectable to display the wind speed in km/h, mph, meters-per-second and knots.
The bft (Beaufort scale) at the top of the wind section displays the velocity of each wind measurement in the
form of a bar for easy reference.
The recorded minimum and maximum wind speed values within a period are also displayed along with the
corresponding dates and times and are automatically updated when a new minimum or maximum values are
reached.
5.9 Rainfall
Three sets of rain data are recorded by base station and displayed on the on the base station and heavy
weather program as total rain, rain in the last 24 hours and rain in the last 1 hour. The information is displayed
numerically and graphically for easy reference. The scale in the total rainfall column will automatically
increase should the rainfall surpass the initial scale maximum displayed.
The recorded maximum rainfall value for 24 hour and 1 hour within a period is also displayed along with the
corresponding date and time and is automatically updated when a new maximum value is reached.
5.10 Weather History
Here the Heavy Weather program automatically records all the weather data from the current period onwards
to form a history of the weather events. The recording interval can be set from 1 minute to up to 60 hours in
the history section (default setting 1 hour) together with the option of recording a next set of data. The next
set of data option can be used for example if the user set the initial recording interval to every 1 hour and
required the next set of data for in 5 minutes time, the program would then initiate recording of the weather
data in 5 minutes before reverting to the previous setting of 1 hour. However based on the previously given
example, due to the mass communication of weather data and high frequency transmission from the sensors
to the base station to the PC and back again, it is possible that the next set of data recording i.e. 5 minute
interval will be missed and will not in fact be executed in exactly 5 minutes time as will be seen from the
history file.
From the main Heavy Weather window, the history section will show the file name used to save the weather
data together with the date and time and the total number of sets of data recorded. Each set of data consists
of pressure, indoor temperature, indoor humidity, outdoor temperature, outdoor humidity, dew point, wind chill,
wind speed, wind direction, total rain, time and date. The user can also select to record a new history file at
anytime by changing the history file or revert to any saved history file that had been previously saved. The
initial history file name is history.dat. If a previously saved history file is used again, the current recording
interval will be regarded as the latest setting and all new data will be recorded into that file (see 8.0 Settings
below for working detail). The history file can be displayed in a window parallel in running to the Heavy
Weather program. If desired the saved files can be saved as text files and opened in other formats.
Once the PC is switched off, connection to the base station will be lost but the base station will record all
weather events for up to 175 records in it’s memory bank according the interval set from the PC at the time of
power off. For example if the user set a history recording interval of 5 minutes, then the base station will store
all the weather data from 5 minute intervals for up to 175 sets of data until the Heavy Weather program is
used again. However there are no limitations for the number of history files saved onto the PC providing there
is sufficient space available on the hard disk.
Regardless of the interval setting on the software for reading data from the base station onto your PC, when
the base station has stored the maximum 175 sets of weather data into it's memory, new sets of data received
at the set interval will begin overwriting the oldest records on the base station and it is important to upload the
data to your PC before it gets lost. For example if the interval is set to take hourly readings, then the base
station will take 175 hourly readings which works out to a little over 7 days meaning that users have this
length of time to upload the data to their PC's as to not lose any data.
6.0 Using the Heavy Weather software
6.1 Activating the weather software
Once the weather station is connected to the PC, run the “Heavy Weather” program and it will automatically
detect the connection to the base station and start transferring the weather data from on the PC. All the
weather data; wind; rain; relative pressure; indoor and outdoor temperature/humidity; dew point and wind chill
will almost be simultaneously received and displayed in the relevant sections of the Heavy Weather program.
