Hello everyone, excited to be part of this passionate community:) I recently installed a tempest and am getting some erroneous gust readings. I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced the occasional excessive gust reading and if it could be related to my mounting or if this is acceptable noise. Just wondering if the sensor could be sensitive to mounting angles or turbulence off of adjacent trees/plants/leaves. It is on a 6’ pole in the middle of a field. It has been dry with nice breezes the past few days.
Hello kylelob and welcome to the community,
I had a look at my level to your data and it seems pretty valid and I didn’t see any failure or other weird stuff. Before I mention more regarding your readings, remember that the Tempest is different from other stations with cups as it samples instant values every 3 seconds (if not in power safe mode) compared to a cup that needs to spin up and down … so yes you can see higher wind speeds in gust compared to other stations and to what we think to ‘feel’.
Here are 2 stations (last is your and the 2 are near you). The values and even directions aren’t identical as wind is indeed very sensitive to what is around you (house, trees, lanes etc) This is just the fun … see how it can change just a few meters apart. But as you can see the ‘general’ trend is what you have. Via the map you can find several stations nearby. You might observe yours and those a few days and see that most probably it is ok. If you really feel something can’t be ok … let us know and we’ll ask a technician to look at the raw data but at present time it might take quite some time to get a reply. Well over 1000 units came online last week and it is all hands on deck behind the scenes. 
Enjoy your station !
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Thank you Eric! Appreciate the quick response. It is interesting that the trends on nearby stations are similar. However there is absolutely no way we had 40mph gusts. We were actually having the house painted, and 40mph would have ripped the masking off and probably toppled some ladders. Gusts in the 20s were probable. I’m a kiter, and got this station largely to help me understand when my local beach might be rideable.
I’m going to move the sensor to my roof; my fiberglass pole should arrive today. We’ll see if that clears it up. I would assume you guys filter the data somehow, with that sample frequency you’re bound to have noise. Maybe I’m getting turbulence off a nearby tree or the 6x6 that it’s mounted on. I’ll keep an eye on it, thanks again for the feedback!
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Absolutely- I’m having ongoing anemometer problems. It started with very low to almost non existent readings during some pretty decent, turbulent weather right after my initial installation. I attributed that to having my unit installed too close to my house and surrounding trees, even though it was mounted 10’ up. That idea was also conveyed by Support. I was getting erroneous high gusts during calm weather. Support told me it could have to do with spider webs or other ‘debris’ on the unit. So I took it down, found a small amount of fuzz from a sycamore seed pod- cleaned that out and proceeded to go to the trouble of installing the unit on top of a 30 foot pole attached to the eave of the house further from trees. We got a decent squall line move thru last night and the readings were better, albeit I think a bit low. I attributed that to some nearby tree obstruction and decided it was ok. But this morning during relatively calm weather I’m now suddenly getting the highest wind readings yet! Gusts pushing gale force- way over what was indicated during the storm last night. It’s even showing sustained winds over 20mph, while I stand nearby watching and the leaves on adjacent trees are barely moving. This is beyond frustrating and I’m now convinced that my unit is defective- or worse yet- this is a very bad design flaw in the system. -very unsatisfied customer.
What is your station ID so we can look at the data? That is definitely not normal.
ST-00002542. I agree that it can’t be normal. It’s definitely very strange and very frustrating to have it obviously malfunction like this. Thanks for your response.
The readings currently seem more normal, but the craziness happened between roughly 7:00 am and about 10:30 this morning.
That is the serial number of the Tempest. What we need is your Station ID which is in the web link to your station. It can also be found in the app by going to Settings, Stations, station name, Status. You can also get to it from the web by clicking on the green Online dot at the bottom of the screen. It should be the first item in the list and says Station ID. When you find it, you might also update your personal profile and add it for future reference.
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I wouldn’t call it a design flaw yet, I’m sure a lot of these problems can be solved with data manipulation. For example, a variable for “gust duration” could filter out a lot of the crazy spikes. I trust weatherflow and all the efforts that went into Tempest. It’s the first (and only) kickstarter I will ever back. I’m a mechanical engineer with a lot of experience with product design, embedded systems, sensing and data analysis… I’m very impressed with Tempest and this is all part of the learning process.
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Given that this is the second generation using the same type of setup which has been working quite well for over two years, it is unlikely a design flaw. There have been testing and improvements since the SKY was first released to the public. These are not all Tempest staions Tempest Station Map after all.
It’s 18144. Thanks. I have been in contact with support. They are sending out a replacement unit.
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Something is definitely off. I’m glad a replacement is on the way. Remember to use the Replace Device option to keep your historical data connected to the new device.
This is in the Advanced menu under the device in question.
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Thanks for the info and kind reply!! Will do!