Dayfile.txt

Cumulus maintains a daily file of the highs and lows of each day, as well as a few other nuggets of information. The data contained in the file are used to build the graphs.

Editing in Cumulus

The last command in Edit menu is dayfile.txt. This is a text editor, and works best when at full screen.

You can use this editor to correct individual values by overtyping.

The Create missing button will insert missing rows (complete days) by reading and calculating from Monthly_log_files (a technique that is useful for importing, and processing, pre-Cumulus observations, and that procedure is explained in the Wiki topic in greater detail than is possible in the Help). Click the Help button for detailed instructions. Cumulus Help is comprehensive and explains how a list of inserted records is produced.

If just some fields are missing from a particular row (meteorological day) on day file, then there is a workaround as at all current versions (up to 1.9.4) you can only import from the Monthly_log_files if the whole date (row) is missing in dayfile.txt.

Note for version 1.9.3 only: Create missing might in some cases be affected by a bug in 1.9.3 that can cause incorrect date order for records (dayfile.txt uses dd/mm/yy or dd-mm-yy and all records should be in ascending chronological order), any bugs are believed fixed in version 1.9.4.

Manipulation outside Cumulus

The file is called dayfile.txt which can be viewed in a text editor or imported into various database systems or spreadsheets to manipulate as you wish. Just remember that Cumulus updates it as part of the rollover process, so do not work on it when Cumulus has just been restarted or around the midnight/9am/10am local rollover time.

Tip -- take a copy of the file before you work on it outside Cumulus (perhaps call the copy 'dayfile.csv' so Windows can recognise its structure).

Important:

The (meteorological) date format uses two digits for the year. Edit this file using an editor that treats all fields as text (a text editor or a spreadsheet program that can be instructed not to recognise special field types). - Do not edit this file using Excel or any similar tool that recognizes dates, as it is likely to change the dates to have four figure years, and then Cumulus will no longer be able to use the file.
Times are in format hh:mm, and most value fields are in format x.y using your system decimal notation.
Also, make sure that any editing does not create any blank lines in the file, all must start with date and include some of the parameters listed in correct sequence (i.e. nulls ',,' are not allowed in the line, but since new builds add to number of fields, Cumulus can accept lines without the more recent fields at the end). [Additions for the last few builds only are indicated below, you can explore details of earlier versions via the official product page].

Format of the file

00: Date in the form dd/mm/yy (or sometimes dd-mm-yy, the separator can vary and is unimportant)
01: Highest wind gust
02: Bearing of highest wind gust (integer)
03: Time of highest wind gust
04: Minimum temperature
05: Time of minimum temperature
06: Maximum temperature
07: Time of maximum temperature
08: Minimum sea level pressure
09: Time of minimum pressure
10: Maximum sea level pressure
11: Time of maximum pressure
12: Maximum rainfall rate
13: Time of maximum rainfall rate
14: Total rainfall for the day
15: Average temperature for the day
16: Total wind run
17: Highest Average Wind Speed
18: Time of Highest Avg. Wind speed
19: Lowest humidity
20: Time of lowest humidity
21: Highest humidity
22: Time of highest humidity
23: Total evapotranspiration
24: Total hours of sunshine
25: High Heat index
26: Time of high heat index
27: High Apparent temperature
28: Time of high apparent temperature
29: Low apparent temperature
30: Time of low apparent temperature
31: High hourly rain
32: Time of high hourly rain
33: Low wind chill
34: Time of low wind chill
35: High dew point
36: Time of high dew point
37: Low dew point
38: Time of low dew point

The next 3 entries were added in version 1.9.2 Build 1004

39: Today's dominant/average wind direction (integer)
40: Heating degree days
41: Cooling degree days

Added in version 1.9.3 build 1036

42: High solar radiation
43: Time of high solar radiation
44: High UV Index
45: Time of high UV Index

Example of the file

An extract of a few lines of the dayfile.txt

01/08/11,19.3,61,10:22,12.5,06:58,23.8,14:49,1014.26,20:46,1018.83,09:28,0.0,00:00,0.0,17.8,21.6,4.6,10:44,36,14:14,86,01:56,3.56,8.9,23.8,14:49,23.1,14:50,12.3,06:59,0.0,00:00,12.5,06:58,11.3,00:16,6.9,14:34,354,2.0,1.5

02/08/11,16.1,20,16:55,14.7,06:45,24.2,13:54,1013.79,19:13,1015.65,11:14,0.0,00:00,0.0,18.9,13.7,8.0,15:55,42,20:42,85,06:50,2.79,4.9,24.2,13:54,24.3,13:55,15.1,06:40,0.0,00:00,14.7,06:45,14.8,11:59,7.0,21:09,57,1.0,1.7

03/08/11,14.5,36,17:23,14.9,05:50,24.6,14:46,1012.70,18:44,1015.99,08:34,0.0,00:00,0.0,19.4,17.2,4.8,16:04,50,14:38,79,07:04,3.05,5.8,24.6,14:46,25.4,14:47,15.0,05:50,0.0,00:00,14.9,05:50,14.2,20:01,8.9,00:16,32,0.8,1.9

04/08/11,17.7,16,15:43,14.1,06:20,25.3,15:06,1013.08,18:42,1015.31,08:28,0.0,00:00,0.0,20.2,19.4,8.1,14:12,52,18:20,92,06:55,3.30,9.1,25.3,15:06,26.8,14:55,14.9,06:20,0.0,00:00,14.1,06:20,15.8,14:55,12.5,06:25,36,1.0,2.9

05/08/11,16.1,32,12:52,14.2,06:12,22.2,14:07,1013.89,00:01,1016.36,09:43,0.0,00:00,0.0,18.6,21.6,5.2,13:00,62,15:57,87,06:11,3.30,8.4,22.2,14:07,23.5,14:10,14.8,07:19,0.0,00:00,14.2,06:12,15.4,10:33,12.0,06:03,34,0.9,1.3

06/08/11,16.1,309,11:15,14.3,05:29,22.4,17:12,1014.46,20:02,1016.97,10:38,0.0,00:00,0.0,18.4,19.2,5.5,16:21,55,13:33,92,05:20,2.79,7.9,22.4,17:12,23.3,18:17,15.1,06:09,0.0,00:00,14.3,05:29,14.2,18:12,10.9,10:38,32,1.1,1.3

07/08/11,17.7,342,13:24,12.9,05:47,24.1,14:53,1013.92,19:49,1016.43,09:36,0.0,00:00,0.0,18.4,19.1,6.3,14:06,48,12:45,89,05:36,3.30,9.0,24.1,14:53,24.6,15:48,13.3,05:47,0.0,00:00,12.9,05:47,14.6,15:52,10.7,11:33,11,1.6,1.7