Wind direction has been fluctuating as it should since it was installed. Had a thunderstorm roll through about an hour ago and the wind direction seems stuck and hasn’t wavered one time. Just seems odd all of a sudden that it would lock in.
Keep an eye on this. If by later on Monday morning you check the Sensor Status (refresh as needed) and it still indicates “Wind Failed” then you need to go to the SUPPORT portion in the upper right part of this page and submit a work ticket with WF. They are busy and back-logged so have patience. Sounds like your unit may be a candidate for a “replacement Tempest.”
Shucks, only have had it up and running 6 days 
Well, things happen! WeatherFlow has the most excellent Customer Service. Although they are eXtremely busy with other Tempest owners like you who have issues with their units. . .they WILL take care you! Again. . .it may take time. . .but they have their customers at heart! (I’ve got an issue with my Field Test unit, and that issue hopefully will be remedied in the coming weeks.)
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I wonder if a firmware update to v134 would correct it? There may be two issues. One is the firmware issue fixed in v134 and the other is possibly the water on plate or sensors issue which the superhydrophobic coating is supposed to minimize. Maybe @eric can push the firmware update to it rather than waiting for the server to get around to it.
I was able to get up and run a paper towel in the opening all around it to remove any water. The sensor seems to be reading correct now and I went into status and the wind failure message is now gone and says all sensors are ok.
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Be extremely careful doing that as it can damage the superhydrophbic coating. Glad it is back to working properly.
I’ll remember thst for next time. What’s the preferred method for cleaning inside there?
Good question. I’m still waiting on an official response. I learned from field testing different coatings that I shouldn’t touch the coating since it was delicate. At least I learned on a field test unit. In your case I would have just blown the water out. It is water hanging on the sonic transducers and/or large puddles on the lower plate which causes the issue. There are algorithms in place to reject the results of smaller water droplets but it is too much to filter out when a large amount of water stays and doesn’t get blown out.
As far as cleaning, I have just carefully reached in with something to get things like cobwebs out without touching the coating. Water is the only other thing to maybe squirt in the gap. I have a SKY I need to clean off bird poop from today when my Bird Spikes get here and I plan on using only water, maybe a soft stream out of a garden hose.
I was wondering if the can of air like for a keyboard cleaner would worker?
Also, I know i have bird droppings I need to clean on mine but just put the order for the bird spikes in last night so maybe ill get those by Thursday or Friday.
I just tried to clean my SKY and Tempest. I just used a garden hose with the water running slowly. I was able to get some of the thicker bird poop off by squirting a stream at it but it didn’t completely come off.
Looking forward to seeing effects of winter snow on the Tempest wind sensor. My Sky managed ok despite occasional wet snow that would stay on the sensors for a day or two.
I’m interested to see how the Tempest will perform in a tropical system. The north east side of Hurricane Isaias will be passing Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA early Tuesday morning.
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Good luck with the hurricane. No fun for you folks down there.
Will be looking at the WF map for your area.
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I’ve seen we are in store for sustained winds of 50+mph with gusts up to 80mph.
Ouch. Hang in there… literally !
I’m in Greensboro NC so we’ll be on the western side but may miss the 40+ mph winds. Was hoping i would get some of it to test the unit out.
It will still be a breezy day for you guys in the Triad. I was born and raised not far from you in Winston-Salem.
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Highest gust we received was 19mph and .74 inches of rain.