Hi all,
Does anyone know how long the tempest device will send evt_strike messages via UDP following the most recent strike? Hard to determine since I can’t simulate lightning and I can’t find any documentation that specifies this value.
Thanks!
It’s immediate and 1:1. Whenever the sensor detects a strike, it broadcasts an evt_strike message. Nothing else is broadcast until another strike happens.
I’ll also add, because this one stumped me for a while. The strike distance is a value that’s calculated from the lightning sensor’s firmware, the calculation comes from an algorithm that figures out “the front edge of the storm”. The value is NOT the actual strike distance. What you’ll see in the UDP evt_strike messages is distance values that don’t make sense… 15, 15, 15, 13, 4, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4… etc. They are very sequential and not random like you would expect. This is because it’s reporting how far the front edge of the storm is.
If you want to get actual strike distance, you need to get it from the websocket api. The websocket data is calculated on the WeatherFlow backend. WeatherFlow uses other data sources to validate the strike and triangulate its actual distance from you.
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Thanks Mabeatty! You confirmed what I thought. Interestingly I discovered that my vacuum cleaner triggers evt_strike messages from udp but the webhook service does not. Clearly there is some post processing of the raw data to filter out false positives.
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Correct. The UDP data is raw data from your sensor. It’s why there is no NearCast or Sea Level pressure data. Those values are calculated after they are sent to WeatherFlow.
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