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Correcting Extremes: Difference between revisions
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This page brings together text that was originally on other pages. It is designed to cover both
{{Version badge 1}} and {{Template:Version badge Mx}}, but do be aware that some terminology varies between the two flavours.
=Introduction=▼
As Cumulus processes each reading from your weather station, it checks that value (and any [[Calculate_Missing_Values#Derived spot values|derived]] from it) against the extremes currently stored in various [[:Category:Log_Files|.ini files]], and if necessary updates the extreme records that are affected.
All too often a mistake in one extreme record is propagated to other extreme records, so the purpose of this page is to cover all the necessary corrections in one place (previously the information was scattered amongst pages covering the various files).
▲=Introduction=
The extreme records that are maintained in this way are:
▲As Cumulus processes each reading from your weather station, it checks that value (and any [[Calculate_Missing_Values#Derived spot values|derived]] from it) against the extremes currently stored in various [[:Category:Log_Files|.ini files]], and if necessary updates the extreme records that are affected. The extreme records that are maintained in this way are:
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!style="width:200px"|Period
!style="width:50px"|File storing extremes
!style="width:
!style="width:
!style="width:300px"|Notes
|-
|For current day so far
|[[today.ini]]
| Editor for "Today's rain" (no editor for other derivatives)
|[[Webtags#Today|today.htm]]
|Many entries in this file (for non-midnight rollover, use is made of [[yesterday.ini]] too) get transferred to [[dayfile.txt]] at end of day.
|-▼
| For past days
| [[dayfile.txt]]
| See [[Amending dayfile]]
| Web tags only exist for [[Webtags#Yesterday|yesterday]]
| Often used as source for corrections - see [[#Accuracy Note]]
|-
|For current month-to-date
|[[month.ini]]
| Editor for "This month's records"
|[[Webtags#Monthly|thismonth.htm]]
| Please see [[#Accuracy Note]]
▲|
|-
|For current year-to-date
|[[year.ini]]
| Editor for "This year's records"
|[[Webtags#Yearly|thisyear.htm]]
| Please see [[#Accuracy Note]]
|▼
|-
|For all readings since a '''start date''
|[[alltime.ini]]
| Editor for "All Time Records"
|[[Webtags#All_Time|records.htm]]
|See table below for start date
|For a particular month in all years
|[[monthlyalltime.ini]]
| Editor for "Monthly Records"
|[[Webtags#Monthly_All_Time_Records|monthlyrecord.htm]]
▲|
|}
Explaining columns in above table:
Following the links in the second column leads you to more information about the relevant file. Following links in third column leads you to more information about the web tags associated with that period, you can incorporate those in your own [[Customised_templates|templates]].▼
# The first column is self-explanatory
# The second column contains a link to the page that explains more about the file named there, which is where the extreme records are stored for that period
# The third column gives the name for the '''Edit''' menu item to choose to edit these extreme records
▲
==Accuracy Note==
The editors built into Cumulus, for extremes over a period of a month or more, give you the ability to display, for each extreme record:
The article starts with corrections related to the penultimate entry in that table (all-time). That approach is partly because many Cumulus Users take a lot of interest when their all-time extreme records are broken, and partly as all-time is a good place to start as it can make subsequent edits easier (for example an edit to all-time indicates which month (or months) you need to edit in monthly-all-time; but an edit to monthly-all-time does not help you know whether an edit is needed to all-time).▼
# The figure taken from a search for that extreme by examining entries in the [[dayfile.txt]] for that period
# The figure taken from a search for that extreme by examining entries in the [[standard log file(s)]] for that period
Normally the first returns the more accurate result (unless the '''dayfile.txt''' line, either was created with a rogue value, or has been corrupted). Let me explain why:
* Using [[Standard log files]] as source for recalculating past extremes:
** Let us assume you are using the default logging interval of 10 minutes
** Unlike some other weather station software available (which logs highest and lowest since previous log), Cumulus logs spot values
** That means the [[Monthly log files]] do not capture any extremes recorded in the time (by default 599 seconds) between logs
** Therefore the detailed log files are not normally the most accurate source
* Using [[dayfile.txt]] as source for recalculating past extremes
** MX typically processes data from your weather station every second (even if you use a weather station type that only reads its sensors every 40 or 60 seconds). Cumulus 1 processes data from your weather station at intervals that vary for the different station types, but we can assume it is at least every 60 seconds.
** Therefore extremes recorded in '''today.ini''' (and from there into '''dayfile.ini'') are based on the full sampling done by Cumulus
** This means none, or very few, extremes are missed
However, if you either have had an electrical supply problem or there has been corruption of data within your weather station generating a rogue value, it is possible that the files currently being used by Cumulus get corrupted. Provided you act, as soon as possible afterwards, you can make use of the [[Backup folder|backups]] that Cumulus takes. All the extreme record files mentioned in the table above are backed up when Cumulus is restarted and (depending on which release you are using - see [[today.ini]] - either with the end of day or start of day contents. For this month and this year extreme records, it is often better to find the previous extreme by examining a backup copy, providing a true extreme has not happened since, than by using the values displayed in the editor as those might be corrupted in the same problem.
For all-time (and for MX only, monthly-all-time) extreme records, there is a log [[Alltimelog.txt]] (and for MX only,[[Monthlyalltimelog.txt]]) that logs each time the extreme is updated, so you can get an accurate previous value from there.
==Arrangement of information on this page==
▲The
There is more information in [[:Category:Log_Files]] and the pages relating to individual files, for all of the extreme holding files.
==Why might your extremes need to be corrected?==
For simplicity, this article will only document the development of all-time functionality, it should be obvious that for other extremes mentioned in the introduction, full extreme record data was not available in all Cumulus releases for all the weather variables that the latest release reports. In general, daily extreme functionality was added first, this month/year extreme functionality followed that, and all-time was introduced before monthly-all-time. Also, this section has intentionally been kept brief, and does not list all bugs that might result in incorrect extremes being stored, nor when such bugs were subsequently resolved.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Cumulus MX had lots of bugs in its early builds. So if you ever used Cumulus MX versions 3.0.0 to 3.3.0, you cannot rely that all all-time extreme records
reported correctly take into account any records broken on a date prior to 19 Feb 2020. Also there have been some changes in how some derivatives are calculated, and these might invalidate other 2020 dated entries. The '''updates.txt''' that is part of each MX release distribution has brief details of when the very many issues were fixed. Again, searching all the posts in [https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=40 the relevant support forum] will yield more information in return for a lot more effort.
[[Image:Icon info.png|left|30px]]The '''start date''' referenced in the last bullet in the introduction, is generally when you first started using Cumulus. However, as Cumulus has developed it has
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|957
|-
|highest/lowest feels like
|24 June 2020
|3.6.10
|(lost)
|-
|highest daily
|3 Jul 2011
|1.9.2 beta
Of course, it is possible that the old value in '''Alltimelog.txt''' is not appropriate. It might be that after the rogue value was stored in '''alltime.ini''', a new extreme was seen, and this new extreme was different to the previous value stored in '''Alltimelog.txt''', but it did not cause an update in '''alltime.ini''' because of the rogue value that was stored there being more extreme.
Please see [[#Accuracy Note]] for other accuracy points.
===Looking at graphical representations===
'''Build''' number in Cumulus 1 and 3 (MX), was used to identify each release, and historically alpha, beta, and bug fixing, releases could all share the same version number. For recent MX releases, the developer has changed version number every time there is a new build released.
▲[[Category:Log Files]][[Category:Cumulus MX]]
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