This is the status and history page for the San Francisco-based weather station, KCASANFR283, which contributes data to the Weather Underground network.

Significant events

2014
Date Event Temp Dew Point Wind Wind Direction Solar UV Rain
2014-06-21 17:39:00 PDT

Station commissioned. It was placed in a temporary, somewhat shielded location with a building obstruction to the southwest. This obstruction probably affected the anemometer and most definitely affected the solar sensors in the winter when the building began to cast shadows on the station.

The station hardware is not new; it had been in use from 2008-2014 in Petaluma, California as wunderground station KCAPETAL8.

             
2014-06-22 08:35:00 PDT Station connected to Weather Underground (wunderground) network as KCASANFR283.              
2014-06-26 18:47:41 PDT Station taken off wunderground network for wview software upgrade. Archive records are available, however.              
2014-06-26 19:33:40 PDT WView upgrade complete. Station placed back on wunderground network.              
2014-06-29 16:57:00 PDT Anemometer moved to roof to improve accuracy. No notable obstructions in any direction.              
2014-06-29 17:50:00 PDT Anemometer vane was incorrectly set to approximately 355 degrees azimuth. Adjusted 5 degrees eastward to true north.              
2014-07-03 13:57:22 PDT Station elevation setting in Vantage Pro console changed from 53 feet to 86 feet MSL. Barometric pressure measurements will be different before and after this change.              
2014-07-03 20:19:08 PDT Changed station to RapidFire protocol with WeatherUnderground. Made possible by some custom changes to wview. Made another change wherein wind gust data is maintained across a customizable interval when submitting data via the RapidFire protocol. This way the gust data stays more sensible in the wunderground reports, rather than only giving gusts observed in the last 5 seconds or so.              
2014-08-08 08:59:00 PDT Anemometer pole laid on its side while the roof was replaced. Wind direction and speed are very inaccurate and will remain so for about four months.              
2014-12-10 20:29:00 PST Anemometer restored to upright position. Wind readings are now usable.              
2015
Date Event Temp Dew Point Wind Wind Direction Solar UV Rain
2015-03-01 18:05:00 PST Installed an antenna on a pole about 4 feet to the north of the anemometer. It may induce some turbulence in wind readings.              
2015-11-20 Humidity sensor readings are starting to become unreliable. They will remain so until the station is overhauled on 2016-05-13.              
2016
Date Event Temp Dew Point Wind Wind Direction Solar UV Rain
2016-02-09 13:55:00 PST Disconnected anemometer to move it.              
2016-02-09 15:39:00 PST Moved anemometer about 6 feet to the WNW to move it away from the antenna. The remainder of the station will be moved here soon, as well.              
2016-02-20 16:15:00 PST Started moving temperature, humidity, UV, solar and rain sensors to the roof from the somewhat sheltered original location. The anemometer was temporarily disconnected so that it could be reconnected to the main station board rather than remaining connected to the secondary sensor board that I had installed for it.              
2016-02-20 17:13:00 PST Finished relocating remaining sensors to roof. Solar and UV sensors should be completely free of any obstructions. Temperature sensor may be affected by roof heating.              
2016-05-09 12:17:28 PDT Station taken out of service for factory overhaul.              
2016-05-13 14:22:53 PDT Station placed back in service after factory overhaul by Davis Instruments. Solar, UV and humidity sensors are the most noticably changed. The anemometer has also been completely replaced. Wind vane now moves more smoothly; wind direction for calm winds is now likely more accurate because it is less likely to be stuck.              
2016-05-19 14:21:00 PDT Disconnected temperature and humidity sensors to investigate methods for isolating them from the heating effects of the roof.              
2016-05-19 14:26:00 PDT Connected temperature and humidity sensors to secondary transmitter to see if using a secondary transmitter will work. The data will show up in the "extraTemp1" and "extraHumid1" fields of the station LOOP and archive packets.              
2016-05-19 14:31:00 PDT Disconnected solar and UV sensors temporarily in order to remove temperature and humidity sensors.              
2016-05-19 14:35:00 PDT Reconnected solar and UV sensors.              
2016-05-19 15:06:00 PDT

Disconnected temperature and humidity sensors from secondary transmitter. While using the secondary transmitter will work, it will do so at the expense of precision. Unlike the main transmitter, which can transmit temperature measurements to a precision of one tenth of a degree (F), secondary transmitters can only transmit measurements in single-degree precision.

Removed entire stack in order to lengthen the sensor cables. With longer cables I will be able to place the temperature and humidity sensors in an area where they should be less influenced by the roof surface yet still connect them to the main transmitter.

             
2016-05-20 19:13:00 PDT Reconnected temperature and humidity sensors. They are now on a custom built hanger on the northern end of the house, 12 inches under the roof line. Hopefully this will make ambient temperature measurements more accurate and make them less likely to be influenced by heated air from the roof.              
2016-05-22 13:14:00 PDT Added a cardboard "parasol" to cover the temperature and humidity sensor stack from the sun in an attempt to dampen what appear to be sun-induced temperature swings.              
2016-05-23 15:28:26 PDT Stopped using wview software in preparation for using new WeeWX software.              
2016-05-23 15:33:53 PDT

Station now running WeeWX version 3.5.0. The one notable difference in the software is that it lacks the custom wind gust algorithm I had written for wview.

The custom gust algorithm kept wind gust data over a several minute interval when reporting LOOP data via the RapidFire Weather Underground feed. WeeWX, however, reports the gust data straight from the hardware. The difference is noticable in the Weather Underground feed in that wind gust speeds often coincide with instantaneous wind speeds now that WeeWX is running, whereas they rarely did before.

             
2016-05-23 16:44:07 PDT Added feed to PWS network, station "KCASANFR2"              
2016-05-23 21:13:21 PDT WeeWX stopped in order to merge the old archive records from wview.              
2016-05-23 21:29:34 PDT WeeWX restarted.              
2016-10-14 12:01:52 PDT WeeWX stopped for upgrade.              
2016-10-14 12:02:14 PDT WeeWX restarted. Now running WeeWX 3.6.1.              
2016-11-09 12:41:57 PST WeeWX stopped to inspect console settings.              
2016-11-09 12:42:41 PST WeeWX restarted.              
2016-11-15 07:11:58 PST Battery died on ISS (external sensor package). This took out all measurements except for barometric pressure. This is probably an indication of a larger issue with the ISS solar panel.              
2016-11-15 12:53:34 PST ISS battery replaced. Solar panel will have to be inspected.              
2017
Date Event Temp Dew Point Wind Wind Direction Solar UV Rain
2017-06-12 21:33 PDT Readjusted wind vane by sighting through polaris. Adjusted some 2-3 degrees (guessing) westward.              
2017-06-21 17:20:00 PDT Cleaned insolation (solar) and UV sensors with denatured alcohol after comparing readings made one year ago and seeing a 5-10% decline in insolation. Readings increased by 5-6% immediately after cleaning. Effect may need to be interpolated back to station re-commissioning in 2016-05-13.              
2017-06-23 15:34:43 PDT Stopped WeeWX for upgrade to archive data thinner.              
2017-06-23 15:44:39 PDT WeeWX restarted.              
2019
Date Event Temp Dew Point Wind Wind Direction Solar UV Rain
2019-07-16 Humidity sensor readings are starting to become unreliable. New humidity sensor is on order.              
2019-08-03 14:22:00 PDT

Replaced rain collector with new Davis collector which is supposed to give more accurate readings when wind is high (as it often is on the roof). This caused a spurrious rain bucket tip.

Also began process of replacing temperature and humidity sensor. Old sensor was removed from aspirator housing, causing temperatures to fluctuate and likely read a bit high.

             
2019-08-03 18:22:30 PDT Disconnected old temperature and humidity sensor.              
2019-08-03 18:23:40 PDT Connected new temperature and humidity sensor.              
2021
Date Event Temp Dew Point Wind Wind Direction Solar UV Rain
2021-01-20 11:21 PST Splice to temperature and humidity sensor begins to fail.              
2021-02-01 09:40 PST Splice to temperature and humidity sensor completely fails after inspection.              
2021-02-03 20:32 PST Fixed temperature and humidity sensor cable splice.              
2022
2022-12-30 12:48:36 PST Rain gauge tip sensor goes haywire. Reed switch likely needs replacement. (Back dated check: anemometer is poor).              
2022-12-30 23:03:29 PST Began replacing rain gauge reed switch in rain. Disconnected many sensors from ISS.              
2022-12-31 00:02:51 PST Rain gauge reed switch replacement attempted, but failed. All other sensors reconnected.              
2023
2023-01-02 11:31 PST Rain gauge reed switch replaced, repair good.              
2023-01-04 17:27 PST Wind sensor seems to have stopped working. Likely has been poor for several months.              
2023-01-04 18:39 PST Examined sensor suite to discover source of wind sensor problem. Found that inside of sensor suite is wet, especially wind sensor jack. Attempted to dry the jack and cable. Checked that cover is tight.              
2023-01-04 20:24:56 PST Cleaned and dried wind sensor jack in ISS.              
2023-01-07 12:05 PST Noticed that rain rate is absolutely out of control and that wind is not working either. Suspect water intrusion into station housing. Cleaned and dried wind sensor jacks (rain and wind) in ISS.              
2023-01-08 20:00 PST Found possible source of water that is screwing up wind and rain sensors: the ISS solar panel. After 14 years the plastic has broken down enough that water seeps around the panels and into the housing. Removed cover and applied silicon caulking to it.              
2022-01-09 10:54 PST Installed new rain bucket sensor. Dried out ISS housing as there is still a small leak in the solar panel.              
2023-01-19 10:30 PST Have determined that the anemometer is bad. It does not spin freely and often gets stuck at slow speeds. It likely has worn out bearings. Have ordered a replacement bearing. Will inspect records and try to determine when it went bad and retroactively mark it as such in this status database.              
2023-01-24 12:09 PST Removed anemometer housing in preparation for replacement.              
2023-01-24 12:23 PST New anemometer bearing installed.              
2023-02-04 11:32 PST Have noticed that the sensor suite seems to konk out every morning, just after dawn. This is likely the sensor suite battery running down.              
2023-02-05 22:14 PST Replaced sensor suite backup battery.              
2023-06-06 13:40 PDT Console reported that sensor battery is mysteriously dead, despite being new. Start of several day outage.              
2023-06-11 17:19 PDT Replaced sensor battery and rebooted console.              
2024
2024-12-20 07:10 PST

Morning data gaps start appearing. Station's backup battery is likely discharged, which is likely caused by the poor performance of the station's solar panels.

Outages will likely continue until battery is replaced.

             
2025
2025-02-04 01:30 PST

Replaced station battery. Old battery: 1.74V, new: 3.268V.

             
2025-02-12 17:32 PST

Replaced enclosure cover and solar panel.