Lightning detector online.

Wertz

No detector? Laughable really. They can't cost that much....or is snowbie a euromillion's winner?

Snowbie

Yep 2+1 star last week.:cool:

Snowbie

Detector has shipped and be with me hopefully thursday.
BTW my site has changed and new url is

www.irlweather.com

this is where you can access my lightning detector from in the near future.

Snowbie

Got the new detector this morning.Have it installed and now just have to find a better location for my antanna indoors,preferably at the highest point in my house in the attic.Will take awhile in testing to get the best location but should be back on line by the weekend.

rc28

Snowbie wrote:

Got the new detector this morning.Have it installed and now just have to find a better location for my antanna indoors,preferably at the highest point in my house in the attic.Will take awhile in testing to get the best location but should be back on line by the weekend.

Good to hear, thanks snowbie. Well done on the new website too.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Good, good., hopefully there will be plenty of thunderystorms to test it on.

Snowbie

So far so good,its communicating with pc as i have my antanna installed temporarily in my wardrobe untill i get the time to locate it higher.It is picking up sfreics in the sea and the one that woke us all up here by the coast.

At least now we can see what type of stroke is coming from a lightning flash.
But untill i can place antanna higher,a simple light switch being turned on in my house will pick that up as a flash of lightning again will be eliminated when ill place it in the attic.Enjoy.

Snowbie

Installed in attic and is approx 32feet above ground level giving it a range of nearly 600km but more accurate within 500km.As it took a long time to calibrate and try to accurately range last detector,i need storms to tweak a few settings.As i noticed already the height is finding sferics over southern UK and channel which was very reluctant to do before as it was mounted outside on pvc piping at 12ft.Hope its new height is enough to eliminate the mountains sponging the signal and to detect the convective south east storms over MM and Tristrame which often i couldn detect.

Edit:Need your help.It be much quicker and helpful if i got your location,time and your strikes overhead to quicken up configuration.I have a replay function which i can go by to configure past data if im away from PC so time is important and very close lightning strike to your area(believe me its a very complex piece of equipment).In the past i had to go by radar but as most of you know lightning can strike without rain.This will cut short my time to configure dispaly for you and myself.Almost 2 years on last detector calibrating due to lack of storms.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Snowbie wrote:

Installed in attic and is approx 32feet above ground level giving it a range of nearly 600km but more accurate within 500km.As it took a long time to calibrate and try to accurately range last detector,i need storms to tweak a few settings.As i noticed already the height is finding sferics over southern UK and channel which was very reluctant to do before as it was mounted outside on pvc piping at 12ft.Hope its new height is enough to eliminate the mountains sponging the signal and to detect the convective south east storms over MM and Tristrame which often i couldn detect.

Edit:Need your help.It be much quicker and helpful if i got your location,time and your strikes overhead to quicken up configuration.I have a replay function which i can go by to configure past data if im away from PC so time is important and very close lightning strike to your area(believe me its a very complex piece of equipment).In the past i had to go by radar but as most of you know lightning can strike without rain.This will cut short my time to configure dispaly for you and myself.Almost 2 years on last detector calibrating due to lack of storms.

Yeah i was thinking that could be a problem with calibrating your detector, lack of thundery storms here in Ireland. Hopefully though we will have some more again shortly for you test it on. Maybe you could go on to uk weather forums, and maybe get some help from people in England within range of the detector. Should increase your chances of catching a storm.

Snowbie

Any storms thats east of me(Irish sea and UK)are not a problem as im apart of the strikestar network and is therefore easy to calibrate.This is a triangulated network that takes data from several detectors and pinpoints the accuracy down to the meter.Its our own storms im more concerned about as accuracy subsides after a couple of hundered kms(again depending on height of antanna etc).Im the most west based detector and with the detector in Morecombe UK will have trouble finding your sparks down in Kerry.

Here is a map of the sites.

Would it help if I installed one down here and what is it going to cost me?

Snowbie

The help im looking for is for calibrating end of things.You received a lightning strike,say within a mile from you,all anyone has to do is tell me the time/location of the strike and ill do the rest.After testing yesterday there was in fact 2 cells,one over Limerick and a couple of strikes down in Kerry and over Norfolk in UK.I picked them up and ranged the UK cells with the use of other detectors but its how far off i am in Ireland i dont know yet.It wont be a million miles off but if i had the help of users on this forum,it would speed up the process a lot quicker.One off calibrating and thats it then.

There is no need for you to go through unneccesary expenditure (unless you want to yourself of course)but its your area that has seem to be blinded by the mountains(as mountains create alot of reflection with siganl) on my side but only time will tell if my added antanna height will be enough.

rc28

There's a chance you might get to try out thhe detector over the next few days according to the forecast;
http://www.met.ie/#

Snowbie

rc28 wrote:

Did today's lightning help you calibrate your detector? There seems to be more detail in this new one, is there or am I imagining things?

I got 1335 strikes in Ireland today and maxed at 1557 detected across both us and the UK(most here in Ireland)
250 strikes (mainly intracloud around the NW quadrant) with only 56 CG+ recorded for the day countrywide.Pulse type storms only.

At one time after replaying my archive for the entire day the detector was recording 5 different cells around the country around 4pm (including 1 over the south Irish sea too)As the consistency of lightning today the ranging adapted to where the cells actually where occuring without my interference or calibrating and so i was pleased with it.The more strikes from a particular cell the more accurate it becomes(say from 10strikes+) Low sporadic strikes dont fair well at all,unless triangulated.

Today was just a moderate outbreak pulse type stuff.Its the true surface heating on a still hot summers day severe storm that im awaiting to pinpoint accurately.You know the ones when there is a lot of CG+

With the antanna and pci card it decipher the stroke type be it weak,strong IC or CG.I witnessed 3 sheet lightning overhead today and detector classed two of them as -IC and one +IC and so happy with that.

rc28

This is off topic but I didn't know where else to put it;
Does anyone know of a good website (that delivers to ireland) for weather stuff like rain guages etc? I'd really like a wireless rain guage which also records the rainfall rate, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

Weather BOFH

rc28 wrote:

Does anyone know of a good website (that delivers to ireland) for weather stuff like rain guages etc? I'd really like a wireless rain guage which also records the rainfall rate, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

I've been thinking about ordering from here:

http://www.meteo-shop.eu/

They have pricing in Euro and they deliver to Ireland for just €6 extra, only thing is you have to pay by cheque or wire transfer, but only after you receive the goods.

rc28

Thanks but by wire transfer do you mean plain old credit card? I'd prefer a site that just accepts credit card as normal.

Strasser

rc28 wrote:

This is off topic but I didn't know where else to put it;
Does anyone know of a good website (that delivers to ireland) for weather stuff like rain guages etc? I'd really like a wireless rain guage which also records the rainfall rate, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

I have got some stuff from here before
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/
it was a few years ago but I persume they're still ok, they look good anyway.

Weather BOFH

rc28 wrote:

Thanks but by wire transfer do you mean plain old credit card? I'd prefer a site that just accepts credit card as normal.

No, you'd have to go to a bank to transfer the money to their account, most of them (including mine) won't even let you do it online unfortunately!

UK Weather Shop take credit cards but they are a bit pricier than the other place.

Edit: Strasser beat me to it!

rc28

Thanks, in the following link does the cheaper rain gauge show the hourly rate eg 15mm/hr?:
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/oregon_scientific_rain_sub.html#aOS_2dRGR682

Snowbie

Lads this is way off topic.rc28 there is no problem starting a thread if you need to about your own topic.There also has been a few threads about different weather stations etc in this forum.They may be of help too.

rc28

Sorry snowbie, i'll do a search for old threads.

CrowdedHouse

Wertz wrote:

No detector? Laughable really. They can't cost that much....or is snowbie a euromillion's winner?

That's very odd OK

I know the ESB/Eircom have one.

The detector is in Portumna Forest Park,I came across it myself while out walking.Next time I'm down that way I'll try to get a pic.

The detector is part of a network of a UK company called EA Technology