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Usage Notes

General

All times are recorded in Universal Time Coordinates (UTC) and converted to your device local time for display.

All wind directions are relative to True North.

The wind, temperature, pressure and humidity charts were developed using the the Highcharts Library. Features of Highcharts include the ability to display conditions at any given time by hovering your cursor over a chart, and the ability to highlight or de-select certain properties by clicking on that property on a chart's legend. Highcharts is a commercially-available charting library available at no charge for not-for-profit organizations like NSC.

Wind Data Accuracy and Reliability

The Weather Station is mounted on the lighthouse at the harbour entrance. Winds from the northwest to the northeast (a 90° sector) reach the weather station unimpeded, providing reliable wind direction and strength readings. However, winds from the northeast to the northwest (a 270° sector in a clockwise direction) are obstructed by land, trees and buildings, and thus both the wind strength and direction are more variable than on the lake, and the wind strength will generally under-report the winds on the lake. The weather station does accurately report the winds at the station, but that may not be a reliable indication of the winds on Lac Deschênes.

Note: When no new data is available, either because the Weather Station is down, the communication link is inoperative or the WeatherLink Cloud storage is offline, the last available values are used, resulting in constant-value (straight-line) plots.

Weather Station Data

The NSC's weather station uploads its sensors' data every 5 minutes to the Davis Weatherlink Cloud Storage (named WLL) through a small device connected to the internet via the office router.

Every 10 minutes starting on the hour, the NSC server downloads the latest 10-minute data set from the WLL, and stores the time, wind, temperature, humidity and pressure values in a running 24-hour file in 10 minutes increments. It takes about 20 seconds for the new data to be processed and displayed in the plots.

When you open or reload this page, the 24-hour file is downloaded by your web client and processed to generate the charts below. To update the charts, reload the page.

The WLL data is also available to other weather websites, including Sailflow, Weatherlink, Weather Underground and CWOP.

Wind Direction Polar Plot

The wind direction polar plot is also known as a Radar Plot; it shows the most recent wind direction at the outside of the polar plot, similar to the depiction of the original NSC "Windicator". When the wind speed is 0, the wind direction is "frozen" to the last non-zero value until the wind speed increases again.

Wind Frequency Polar PLot

The wind frequency polar plot is also known as a Wind Rose. The average wind data points are grouped by speed and direction according to one of 7 speed ranges and 16 compass (cardinal) points. Groups are plotted as color-coded sectors.

Prevailing Wind & Peak Gust

This chart presents prevailing wind strength and direction. The "Wind Speed" and "Wind Direction", plotted in 10-minute increments, are the last 10-minute average values obtained from the latest data download. The "Peak Gust" is the maximum wind speed registered over the same period.

When the wind speed drops below 1 knot, the wind arrow is replaced by a small dot. When the wind speed is 0, the wind direction is "frozen" to the last non-zero value until the wind speed increases again.

Note that the 10-minute averages use in this plot (and 7-day plot) are different from the 5-minute averages used in the 6-hr plot, and therefore the wind speeds, directions and gusts may differ.

Temperature, Pressure & Humidity

Self-explanatory, similar to the chart, "Prevailing Winds amp; Peak Gusts".

Disclaimer

NSC does not warrant the quality, accuracy, or completeness of any data presented in this page. The following weather information is provided on an "AS IS" basis without warranty or condition of any nature.

Suggestions? Errors?

Please contact the Weather Station Team.

Usage Notes updated on 2024-12-05.

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