Hello Everyone. First time poster here. I live in the Bay Area and we had strong winds today gusting as high as 49.3 mph. When the gusts were recording the higher numbers it gave false positives for rain (2.21”). If you live in the Bay Area you understand that today (October 27, 2019) we were experiencing winds upwards of 50+.
My SKY is mounted on the top of my second story. It is 33 feet above the ground. It sits on a 1” copper pipe and mounted very solid (see picture below). Not sure what I should do. Should I cut down the copper pipe to make it shorter and more rigid?
Are you in California also? If you have a STEEL pipe and it is only 18”, then my setup doesn’t have a chance. If my power didn’t not go out from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, I am sure my rain totals would be closer to what you got. The wind was pretty violent yesterday here in the Bay Area.
We had very strong winds here on Thursday and Friday and I am having exact same problem.
My mount is a steel pipe filled with sand and I wrapped bicycle inner tubes around the pipe where it connects to the wall mount brackets.
We get lots of gusty strong winds here. I am pretty frustrated and disappointed with the Sky’s false rain readings.
Not sure what to try next either. I have read lots on the forum and tried to incorporate all suggestions that I could. This is my second Sky mount design and so far it has made no difference.
My bird spikes are mounted in a rubber ring to try dampen any vibrations they may cause, but I also removed them completely and it did not have any impact on the false rain readings.
BTW, I love your bird spikes. What type of winds are triggering the false positives for you? I noticed at about 25 mph+ wind gusts it would start to trigger the false positives on the rain sensors. When the gusts were pushing 50 mph, the rain sensors thought there was a very heavy downpour.
If I understand how Rain Check works it will make corrections between 12:00 am and 8:00 am. Services like Weather Underground however will still show that it rained (when it did not) because they don’t allow the API to go back and make historical corrections. I just checked my Rain Totals for yesterday, which registered 2.21" and it now shows as 0.00". So it appears Rain Check is working.
My main concern is trying to eliminate false positives from happening. I am not sure if that is possible especially if people with 18" Steel Pipes are getting the same false positives. What happens when it is WINDY and RAINY at the same time…how will Rain Check play a role in measure the right accumulation.
Same problem here. Short steel (or is it iron?) pipe screwed into a flange that is securely mounted to the top of a block fence. That sucker is PLANTED. Only about 2’ of pipe. Winds hit 47 mph here overnight and it recorded 2 hundredths overnight (not nearly aa bad as you guys, but still annoying). Night before was similar, and was corrected today, but the Weather Underground numbers never get fixed.
What is the solution here? Clearly this is a widespread problem and not simply caused by poor mounting.
Rain Check should have removed all that. I think that is what the WF people would tell you?? I got some when the fence my Sky sits on was disturbed when I emptied a manual gauge that sits only 1 foot from it. WF told me Rain Check would remove it, and that’s what happened. Takes a day, however.
I am using a vinyl wrapped wooden closet pole. While I haven’t had 50 mph winds, it may be that the lower vibration rate of a wooden pole might mitigate the false rain. Also, check the pictures of Sky mount thread for other ideas.
