Pillow Road » Rain

Window Seat

Dale Dougherty — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:27:02 +0000

Last weekend I was in NY and I’m happy to be home this Sunday morning, sitting by the window as the rain starts to fall again. This storm has brought about 3.5 inches of rain to Pillow Road so far. It’s the first rainfall not just for the new year but for the winter season. It’s a good morning to be inside looking out.

I’m baking bread and preparing for a family dinner this evening (after the football game.)

Spring Rainbow

Dale Dougherty — Sun, 15 May 2011 14:18:57 +0000

A rainy day is unusual in the middle of May. This large rainbow appeared to rise from Barnett Valley, which I see looking southwest from my home.

Replacing a rain sensor

Dale Dougherty — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:10:01 +0000

The rain sensor on the weather station (Vantage Pro 2 from Davisnet.com) has not been working.

I wrote Davisnet and they sent me a replacement part — a reed switch, which is a magnetic sensor. It’s small. I had to solder the ends of the reed switch to a pair of wires. It wasn’t easy. It’s a tiny space and I was doing the soldering outside. I needed another pair of hands.

However, I do now understand how the rain sensor works. Water is collected by a funnel and it drops into one of two cups. When the cup is full, the cup tips over, dropping the water while a second cup rises into position. At the bottom of the mechanism holding the two cups is a magnet; each time the cups swap position the magnet swings over the reed switch and it signals an increment of 1/10th of inch of rain has fallen.

I tested out the new switch and it seems to be working. Unfortunately, the weather station is reporting rain today, so now I have to figure out how to zero out this data.

Morning has broken

Dale Dougherty — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:43:18 +0000

The sun from the west meets dark clouds on the east with mist or fog rising from the valley. The livestock are eating away. A faint rainbow appears just before the rain begins to fall.

Come Again Another Day

Dale Dougherty — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:22:05 +0000

The rain pelted West County this week. As of tonight, my weather station recorded 8.75 inches of rain from the storm. The most rain fell on Wednesday, 3.05 inches. We’ve had 11.22 inches this month. Last year, we had .92 inches of rain in January.

There was a break in the rain this morning but it rained off and on today – about a third of an inch. I walked around checking on things and I took some photos.