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Monthly log files: Difference between revisions
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==Correcting any logged data problems==
The 'Monthly Data Logs Viewer' screen accessed by selecting ''Data logs'' on the '''View''' menu does not allow editing of values, but you can use it to look and see if you are happy with what has been recorded.▼
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Some Weather stations may occasionally supply corrupted or rogue values to Cumulus. Cumulus provides via '''Configuration''' menu [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_Offsets|''Calibration'']] screen the ability to screen out spikes (i.e. abnormal differences between two successive readings from weather station) in data picked up from your weather station. See Cumulus help screen if you decide to use that to cope with future spikes. Some rogue values may be obviously invalid (e.g. a zero pressure), others (e.g. wind shake on a tipping bucket rain gauge on a fine day) may be within the accepted all-time range (so cannot be prevented by spike settings), but you know the value is not right for that particular time. ▼
Some Weather stations may occasionally supply corrupted or rogue values to Cumulus.
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*Cumulus MX provides the same functionality, for the same restricted set of station types in its admin interface.
Both flavours of Cumulus also store the same value for a short time, if a replacement value cannot be obtained from the weather station. They both store zero if no value can be obtained.
Some rogue values may be obviously invalid (e.g. a zero pressure), others (e.g. wind shake on a tipping bucket rain gauge on a fine day) may be within the accepted all-time range, but you know the value is not right for that particular time.
=== Spotting rogue values ===
Frequently, the graphical views ('''Charts''', ''Graphs'' or ''Trends'') are the best way to spot many rogue values and to help you guess by interpolation a more reasonable value.
Another possibility is to examine the relevant values in previous versions of the log files stored in the ''backup'' or ''backup/daily'' subdirectories of where your cumulus executable is stored.
▲Frequently, the graphical views ('''View''' menu, ''Graphs'' or ''Select-A-Graph'' screens) are the best way to spot many rogue values and to help you guess by interpolation a more reasonable value. Another possiblity is to examine the relevant values in previous versions of the log files stored in the ''backup'' or ''backup/daily'' subdirectories of where your cumulus executable is stored. You may choose to just edit the rogue value into a reasonable value, or (if you are unable to decide on a better value) to delete that particular entire row in the monthly log. As explained above once the log is corrected, new highs and lows in other logs are easily rectified.
===Manipulation outside Cumulus===
Any log files for ''previous'' months can be edited (outside Cumulus) with Cumulus running, and after editing them, you can do further fetch edits within Cumulus as described above. The current month log file can also be edited outside Cumulus, but as it is being updated frequently you must stop Cumulus first (that explains why there is no edit option within Cumulus!).
===Importing pre-Cumulus data===
See [[FAQ#I.E2.80.99ve_just_installed_Cumulus.2C_and_it_didn.E2.80.99t_download_all_the_old_data_from_my_weather_station|FAQ: I've just installed Cumulus and it didn't download all the old data from my weather station]]
* Rainfall fields may not directly match to weather station outputs. [[FAQ#How_is_my_rain_rate_calculated.3F | Rain rate]] in field 8 may be generated from the [[Monthly_log_files#Using_Monthly_logs_to_deal_with_shorter_.28or_incomplete.29_dayfile.txt_records_for_particular_dates | workaround]] if unavailable from your station. The daily total in field 9 is since rollover time, and available weather station outputs may need some processing in your spreadsheet to derive this. Some stations output a count of total rainfall, others the total annual rainfall, either of these may be used for field 11. Rainfall processing issues are frequently discussed in the Support Forum, so you may find the solution there or ask there for assistance.
'''The date that Cumulus first started tracking all-time records''' (<#recordsbegandate> see [[Webtags#Records]]), '''does ''not'' need to be updated for Cumulus 1''' to recognise earlier monthly log files in its ''data'' subfolder and to use any monthly logs found in the various '''View''' and '''Edit''' options available from the Cumulus main screen.
'''Cumulus MX is different''', it only reads monthly log files from the existing ''records began date'', so that needs to be edited (''StartDate='' line in [[cumulus.ini]] with MX stopped, because it is not on any settings screen) to allow any earlier data to be read. You will also need to update all the other log files that record extremes manually using the editors provided in MX.
If you prefer to edit the start date and keep the ''recordsT.htm'' template label "Records began on" unchanged, the method is to stop Cumulus, and amend the ''StartDate='' line in [[cumulus.ini]] within the main Cumulus folder before re-starting Cumulus, but (in case you make a mistake) back up everything first!▼
As <#recordsbegandate> is on the default Cumulus ''recordsT.htm'' template with the label "Records began on", inserting pre-Cumulus data implies you might want to amend that label wording on that template to indicate it is the date that Cumulus was first operational, rather than the date of the earliest tracked highs and lows.
▲If you prefer to edit the start date and keep the ''recordsT.htm'' template label "Records began on" unchanged, the method is to stop Cumulus 1 or MX, and amend the ''StartDate='' line in [[cumulus.ini]] within the main Cumulus folder before re-starting Cumulus, but (in case you make a mistake) back up everything first!
=== Cumulus Wind Speed Terminology ===
How wind speeds relate to various weather stations is explained in FAQ. Basically there are 3 values processed by Cumulus:
#Gust - the highest wind speed over a particular period (this period defaults to 10 minutes),
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