Does rain data get collected and retained in both actual and near cast

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I’ve been switching back and forth having Near Cast on and off. I just happened to notice that if I go into the history of the device, toggling on and off Near Cast gives different values for rain totals.

I guess I’ve always been under the impression that using Near Cast, it only collects data with Near Cast implemented. So does this mean that it doesn’t really matter which view you use, it’s still collecting the same data, it just presents it differently? There is no reason you can’t bounce back and forth between the two without affecting the data that is actually collected?

If so, how does that apply to 3rd party integrations? I see on my wfpiconsole, it is displaying actual rain fall. But on Weather Underground, it is reporting Near Cast rainfall.

I’m looking at the API documentation, I can see that both actual and near cast data is sent, so is it just up to the 3rd party to decide which one they want to use?

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Both sets of data are stored by WF. As far as the apps are concerned, the NearCast toggle is just that, a toggle.
Screenshot_20230120_072307_Tempest
Note it is labeled “Show NC Rain.”

As for your other questions, I’m not sure.

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Yes, it’s pretty much up to the developer to implement what they choose. In the case of the PiConsole, it was developed before NC rain existed, so it uses actual rainfall. As NC is also not available in every country Tempest is available in, I have chosen to keep actual rain over NC rain

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For Weather Underground, I think it sends what you have selected, NC on or off.

5

I question if that is true. I would have to assume that any third party integration, Weather Underground included, is using the same REST services that are exposed to Tempest users. Assuming that is the case, there is nothing in those REST services that flag whether NearCast is being used or not, it just passes on both measured and NearCast values and leaves it up to the receiver to decide which to use.

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I’ll test it again next time I get rain… but that’ll be a week or two. I do know that with NC on, it sends that value to WU as I can see the rain graph go lower as NC corrects itself sometimes with lower values. Just now I tried a test with NC off, tapping the sensor, and verified it sent WU the NC off value. It was a quick test so maybe I’m missing something.

7

Remember that the Weather Underground integration is managed by WF themselves. They have access to significantly more information regarding user preferences than what is exposed in the public API.

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