December 2008 Archives

Our next weekly HMT-West teleconference (1830 UTC on 5 January 2009) will include a long-range discussion by Klaus Weickmann and Ed Berry.


Kingsmill

A few things to report:

• Data from Canada Hill is flowing again back to Boulder (as of  28 December).  No repair was made, the data came back on its own, so it is possible that the problem could occur again.
• Data from Cazadero and Big Bend is not being sent back to Boulder.  The problems began over the X-mas holiday.  Cause of problems is unknown; PSD staff will investigate over the next few days.

Kingsmill

The initial 08/09 HMT version of the ALPS software was sent on DVD's to the Sacramento WFO and RFC and to the Monterey WFO.  The Monterey WFO (Dave Reynolds) has successfully installed the software and displayed HMT model fields on the ALPS system.  The data is requested from the AWIPS system in Boulder and sent to the remote systems via the NWS Wide Area Network (WAN). Surface and upper air data are also made available through the MADIS/LDAD link. There were a few minor bugs discovered in the process.  Please contact Woody Roberts (woody.roberts@noaa.gov, 303-497-6104) for details. 

The site at Canada Hill (surface met, snow depth, ETI precip, soil moisture) has stopped transmitting data to Boulder.  Cause of problem is unknown.  In order to investigate this problem and the ETI precipitation gauge problems at Huysink, Greek Store and Talbot a visit to the field sites will be required.  Assessments are being made about how visits to some of these remote sites might be facilitated safely during the winter season.


Kingsmill

A few issues to report:

• The bad datalogger battery at Big Bend (BBD) has been replaced and data is flowing again.
• Data from the Colfax (CFC) surface meteorology instrumentation is not being communicated back to Boulder.  The suspected cause is a bad modem.  Repair will not be possible until the week of 5 January.  In the interim, please check out the surface met data from the nearby CFX site.
• The tipping bucket precipitation gauge at Alta reported unrealistically small accumulations for the storm over this past weekend.  With the help of CDF staff, it was determined that debris had clogged the instrument.  They cleared the debris and the gauge should now function properly.  The collocated Joss-Waldvogel disdrometer also recorded anomalously low precipitation accumulations for the event.  It was determined that a layer of slushy ice was covering the sensor head for the instrument---the slush was removed so the instrument should now work again (assuming it doesn't get snowed on again)

Kingsmill

The datalogger problem at Big Bend (BBD) has been repaired.  Data started flowing again at about 17 UTC on 17 December.

Kingsmill

A few problems to report:

• The logger used to collect surface meteorology and precipitation gauge data at Big Bend (BBD) has a bad battery, which is leading to some intermittent data loss.  Plans are being developed to send a PSD staff member to replace the bad battery.
• The ETI precipitation gauges at Greek Store (GKS), Huysink (HYS) and Talbot (TBT) are malfunctioning.  Over the weekend, those sites clearly received snowfall, as evidenced by the rising snow depth trace.  However, the ETI precipitation gauges registered no precipitation.  PSD staff are investigating the problems remotely.  If more advanced repairs are necessary, it will be difficult to get to those sites at this stage of the season.  Stay tuned.

Kingsmill

HMT-West kicks off on 5 Dec 08.