Personal Wunderground Station vs. NOAA
Background: My settings show that I have NOAA and Wunderground set for forecasts and just Wunderground for stations. Wunderground is set to a nearby neighbor's weather station. I watch it regularly (at least every week and more often when I want to know if it's going to rain before I go out into the local mountains) and I've only seen it not working once over the last several years.
I'm particularly interested in using a local station because we live close to the coast and the weather can be considerably different than the airport which is several miles inland (I'm not sure if that's where NOAA is located, but most of the forecasts I see are considerably (10F) hotter than we actually get. We frequently have coastal fog which often only goes less than a mile inland.
Question: What happens to my RainMachine settings if the local Wunderground station isn't reporting?
PS. I just installed my RainMachine yesterday, so am still finding my way. Had to set weather station on mobile. Couldn't see how to do it on the web app, although the selection I made shows up. Not a big deal. Not something I'll change often. Although is another local station about 100 yards from the one I'm using.
Suggestion: Allow more than one station—use either the average or prioritize them.
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Official comment
> Question: What happens to my RainMachine settings if the local Wunderground station isn't reporting?
It will just use the data from NOAA in your case, or average if you have more then 1 reporting
> Suggestion: Allow more than one station—use either the average or prioritize them.
Add more then 1 WUnderground station it's not directly possible with current interface but:
2. Rename the file to wunderground2-parser.py
3. Edit the file and replace occurences (case sensitive) of WUnderground with WUnderground2.
4. Connect to the web interface of the device locally by going to https://rainmachine_ip
5. Go to Settings->Weather, Weather Services->Add New and upload wunderground2-parser.py
6. This parser will show up in User Services tab, activate, enter API key, and select another station (you just configure it like the built in WUnderground parser)
P.S. I modified the wunderground parser for a secondary station here:
Just download and upload to your RainMachine.
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I too used a neighbor's weather station and left it with averaging the local station plus NOAA data in the settings. The neighbor's station went down for over a week without me noticing at a time when it had rained. I picked up on this because my sprinkler system started the day after a 1+ inch rainfall according to my rain gauge. At that point, I decided to get my own weather station. If you're near a Costco, they have a great deal on a 5-in-1 Acurite ($79) that connects to the Web if you plug the display into a PC that is always on (otherwise, you need to pay about $80 to get an add-on wifi/network device). Having my own station ensures that I get an email if the station isn't transmitting to the Web, and it's actually a pretty nice weather display that comes with the Acurite that I purchased.
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