Snow Data graphs for snotel sites

**cmor** · 09-30-2007, 10:56 AM

I've been working on this for a while, it's slowly sucking up all my time, was going to throw it out there for Crystal. It databases graphs all the data for the Crystal telemetry. It also throws the wind into polar coordinates and reverses them to show snow transport. It can be used to graph all the data along with a snow pit to create a weather/snow pack history. or blah blah blah.

It's taking me a small eternity. I'm not very good at the code thing. I'm trying to make it expandable so it should be easy to include all the nwac sites and then into other states. Let me know if it appears at all useful.

http://www.alpinedescent.com/crystalweek/snow.htm

-Chris

Edit:
It's in super beta barely functioning stage, and the telemetry throws out a lot of bad data over summer, so there's currentlly a 5 hour delay or so on some of the data. this'll be solved eventually.

**cmor** · 09-30-2007, 08:09 PM

bump, anyone?

**skibuminwyo** · 10-01-2007, 08:02 AM

can i say damn? way too much free time? nice stuff....now tell me how to make sense of it hehehe

**pickin' up at the yard sale** · 10-01-2007, 08:52 AM

wow that's way over my head.

looks like you put in a lot of work

**BigJay** · 10-01-2007, 09:01 AM

I don't know crap about computer code, but when I typed in for the snow totals for 9/30-9/31, I got the same graph 6 times down the page. One problem I immediately realize is that there are no labels on the graphs so I have no idea what I am looking at.

Very cool idea though and it looks like you just have a few little things to iron out.

**AsheanMT** · 10-01-2007, 09:15 AM

Nice work but I have little use for the graph in reality. Lately I have been using the snotel data within google earth as can be done here

**cmor** · 10-01-2007, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by BigJay

I don't know crap about computer code, but when I typed in for the snow totals for 9/30-9/31, I got the same graph 6 times down the page. One problem I immediately realize is that there are no labels on the graphs so I have no idea what I am looking at.

Very cool idea though and it looks like you just have a few little things to iron out.

What browser/version where you using? There should be a label on all of the graphs. Feedback like this helps.

Thanks

**klar** · 10-02-2007, 04:29 AM

nice project.

i have the same problem as bigjay, i tried various parameters and got the same diagram for everything. something being compared for region a and region b during years 2003 to 2005. if you don't pick dates, the graphs seem to make sense for the respective parameters but that is not very helpful without knowing the dates.

this is just a personal preference but i find winddata easier to read when plotted 0-360° against time as a standard graph, though yours obviously works too.

just a thought but you may find thislink interesting. click around the site a bit. basically they use standard data from weatherstations to generate snowpack models, also a lot of research on snowdrift and wind.

**BigJay** · 10-02-2007, 10:30 AM

Chris I am using Firefox on a new Intel MacBook...

**cmor** · 10-16-2007, 02:26 PM

I worked on a few things, hopefully it'll be displaying better...

bump

**cmor** · 10-16-2007, 06:19 PM

bump for some feedback to help troubleshoot

**summit** · 10-16-2007, 06:39 PM

there is always the problem of those snotels are quirky, unpredictable, unreliable, and poorly maintained

**cmor** · 10-16-2007, 07:57 PM

The crystal one is maintained as well as it can be, there's always the problem of snow in the air reflecting and giving bad results, but for forecasting the sites are still one of the best tools you have.

**Squirrel99** · 10-16-2007, 09:53 PM

where the hell is buster?
i'm sure the mystery toque would be all over this

**cmor** · 10-17-2007, 07:45 AM

Originally Posted by klar

nice project.

i have the same problem as bigjay, i tried various parameters and got the same diagram for everything. something being compared for region a and region b during years 2003 to 2005. if you don't pick dates, the graphs seem to make sense for the respective parameters but that is not very helpful without knowing the dates.

this is just a personal preference but i find winddata easier to read when plotted 0-360° against time as a standard graph, though yours obviously works too.

just a thought but you may find thislink interesting. click around the site a bit. basically they use standard data from weatherstations to generate snowpack models, also a lot of research on snowdrift and wind.

That's really interesting, not surprising to see it's from the swiss.....
I thought about going that direction as well, but didn't quite see the work/reward combo happening if I was on it by myself. Especially the shortwave here though:

http://smm.slf.ch/index.php?topnav=R...odels/Alpine3D

To try to grasp what areas would be getting radiation at what time of day and how much. Unfortunately real time data for that isn't likely anytime soon. but basic general forecasting maps could be produced rather easily

**cmor** · 10-17-2007, 11:58 AM

Still looking for some help on the compatibility,
if you're not into it a simple:

"It works and it's useless" would help
or
"It doesn't work, it's really useless"

**cmor** · 10-17-2007, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by cmor

Still looking for some help on the compatibility,
if you're not into it a simple:

"It works and it's useless" would help
or
"It doesn't work, it's really useless"

I'll give you something worthwhile if you help me out with this.

**Teague** · 10-17-2007, 06:42 PM

Using IE6 and it works fine for me. If I skied Crystal instead of Alpental, I'd be checking this religiously to keep tabs on snow conditions. I love the idea of having a "dashboard" for the latest conditions and snopack/weather history for you local resort. Out of curiosity, what are you using to program all this? Reminds me of: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/snotel/snowash.html

**jonpierre** · 10-17-2007, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by cmor

I'll give you something worthwhile if you help me out with this.

how about this:

"its already been done."

&

"search JONG."

simple enough???

**cmor** · 10-17-2007, 07:15 PM

Originally Posted by jonpierre

how about this:

"its already been done."

&

"search JONG."

simple enough???

I searched, I didn't see anything that similar, could you point me in the right direction?

**jonpierre** · 10-17-2007, 07:26 PM

looks like you have charts and php working

harvest the snotel sites with a perl backend script via cron hourly (heres a hint. change the url to reflect only 1 day of data and you get a smaller page to regex)
dump that into a mysql database
have your form query the database to get historical and almost real time data
have a dash board page which generates graphs based on the most current data from important snotel stations

**cmor** · 10-17-2007, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by jonpierre

looks like you have charts and php working

harvest the snotel sites with a perl backend script via cron hourly (heres a hint. change the url to reflect only 1 day of data and you get a smaller page to regex)
dump that into a mysql database
have your form query the database to get historical and almost real time data
have a dash board page which generates graphs based on the most current data from important snotel stations

pretty much, so where is this done?