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Usage Notes
General
All times are recorded in Universal Time Coordinates (UTC) and converted to your device’s local time for display.
All wind directions are reported relative to True North.
Charts for wind, temperature, pressure, and humidity are rendered using the
Highcharts Library.
Features include:
- Hovering over a chart to view detailed values at specific timestamps.
- Clicking legend items to show or hide data series.
Highcharts is available free of charge for non-profit use, such as by NSC.
Wind Data Accuracy and Reliability
The weather station is mounted on the lighthouse at the harbour entrance.
Winds from the northwest to northeast
(a 90° sector) reach the station unobstructed and yield reliable direction and strength readings.
However, winds from the northeast to northwest (a 270° clockwise sector) are obstructed by land, trees, and buildings. As a result, those readings can be inconsistent or under-represent actual lake conditions. The station accurately reports wind at its location, but these may not match conditions on Lac Deschênes.
Note: When the weather station is offline (e.g., power outage, network failure, or WeatherLink Cloud downtime), the most recent data values are reused in the plots, resulting in flat "straight-line" trends.
Weather Station Data Flow
Sensor data is uploaded every 5 minutes from NSC's weather station to Davis WeatherLink Cloud Storage (WLL), via an internet-connected device on the office router.
Every 10 minutes, starting on the hour, the NSC server downloads the latest dataset from WLL. It appends the timestamp, wind speed/direction, temperature, pressure, and humidity to a rolling 24-hour log file, using 10-minute intervals. The new data is processed and made available for plotting within about 20 seconds.
When this page loads or reloads, the latest 24-hour file is fetched by your browser and used to generate the visual charts below. To refresh the data, simply reload the page.
WLL data is also mirrored on other platforms, including
Sailflow,
WeatherLink,
Weather Underground, and
CWOP.
Prevailing Wind Direction - Polar Plot
This Radar Plot displays the most recent wind direction at the outer edge, similar to the original NSC "Windicator." If wind speed drops to 0, the last known direction remains shown (frozen) until new wind is detected.
Prevailing Wind Frequency - Polar Plot
Also known as a Wind Rose, this plot groups wind samples by speed and direction. Data is divided into 7 speed ranges across 16 compass directions, and visualized as color-coded sectors representing frequency.
24-Hour Wind Plot: Prevailing Wind & Peak Gust
This line chart displays:
- Wind Speed and Wind Direction: 10-minute averages, updated every 10 minutes.
- Peak Gust: Maximum wind speed recorded during each 10-minute interval.
When wind speed is below 1 knot, a small dot replaces the direction arrow. If wind speed is 0, the last non-zero direction remains displayed until the wind resumes.
Note: The 10-minute averages used here (and in the 7-day plot) differ from the 5-minute averages used in the 6-hour plot. Wind values and gust readings may vary slightly between the plots as a result.
Temperature, Pressure & Humidity
These line charts follow the same 10-minute update cycle as the wind data, showing rolling 24-hour trends for each variable.
Disclaimer
NSC provides this weather information “AS IS” with no guarantees of accuracy, timeliness, or completeness.
Suggestions or Errors?
If you find an issue or have suggestions for improving the station or this page, please
contact the Weather Station Team.
Usage Notes updated on 2025-06-29.
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