Weather data, MPGs and ABA Testing.

[TestDrive]

In another thread Matt Herring wrote:

Originally Posted by Matt Herring

Just wanted to pass along this nice link if you're interested in plotting your mpg vs. your weather conditions over the course of your tank. Daily high/low temp, precip, etc. are available by zip code lookup with the link below...just change the zip to get yours.

AccuWeather.com Past Month Weather Data for Danvers, MA

The link (with some additional links and additional info) seems worthy of it's own thread.

With regard to Matt's link, entering a zip code takes you to -
(using Matt's same zip for this example): AccuWeather local forecast page for Davers, MA.

Getting to the actual detailed tabular data requires -

1. Scroll to the Past Weather Check section (near page bottom)
2. For day by day data select: Past Month
   (data source is based on zip - in this case Bos (Boston Airport???)).
3. For hour by hour data select: Past 24 Hours
   (curiously source is now BVY - beverly muni arpt, ma).

Weather Underground weather history pages are a useful alternative with:

• Tabular data (but less clean layout than AccuWeather).
• Data summaries & graphs.
• Access to comma delimited data files (for import to spread sheet).
• Multiple, selectable data sources. (* See end notes)
• (For some data sources) samples every few minutes.
  (Possibly relevant for some ABA tests. Depends on proximity to data source).

Start with Weather Underground local forecast page for Danvers, Massachusetts.]
(Change zip as desired)

Getting to the detailed data requires:

1. Select a source for your current conditions.
   --- Drop down box (with 18 possible sources for Danves, MA. *See End Notes.)
2. Scroll down to the History & Almanac section and click the View button

From the details page change date(s) and/or views (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Custom).

The tabular data is toward the bottom of the page.
Comma delimited file link below tabular data section.

*End Notes:

• The weather source for the details page depends on source selected on/for the forecast page.
• No convenient way to change the weather source from the details pages.
  (Inconvenient way - edit the url in the address bar.)
• If you're really in North Andover, MA (as indicated in your profile), Lawrence Airport would seem to be a better weather data source than Boston (Airport?).
• If you're really in Danvers, MA (as indicated by the AccuWeather link), Royalside (Harbor???) would seem to be a better weather data source than Boston (Airport?).
• Weather Underground seems no more sensible about matching a default data source to the zip code you enter than does AccuWeather.

[Matt Herring]

Test - Thanks for picking up the link from my Prius thread...I think it's a useful site too although it might be easier to bookmark your specific location in the site rather than starting with mine and navigating from there (as you noted).

I just starting taking a look at weather conditions to see how it affects my mpg. While I'm only on my second official tank in my Prius and I've done a couple mods I'm still aware that an increase in mpg isn't ALL mod results and that some (or most) could be weather related. Whatever the case...it's a good site to use to monitor actual temps in your area without having to write down the weather info every day while working through a tank (the internet is a great thing isn't it). Monitoring weather vs. mpg is interesting info. and it's fun to add it to the mpg puzzle.

I don't break it down by temp, day, miles driven on a particular day in a particular temp but I have started noting the average temp over the course of a tank in my fuel log. Something that might be useful down the road to compare monthly mpg's, specific temp mpg's, etc.

Glad you like the link and hope everyone gets as much out of it as possible!

[NachtRitter]

Another thought...

I've been playing with software called SportTracks (see my thread about it here: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...orts-8103.html). There is a "plugin" which will capture details about the weather from a specific wunderground.com station throughout your GPS track, so that you can map against your trip. Unfortunately, it pulls only from a specific station, so if your trip is longer, the information may not be so relevant.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Another thought...

I've been playing with software called SportTracks (see my thread about it here: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...orts-8103.html). There is a "plugin" which will capture details about the weather from a specific wunderground.com station throughout your GPS track, so that you can map against your trip. Unfortunately, it pulls only from a specific station, so if your trip is longer, the information may not be so relevant.

Can SportTrack perhaps import Wunderground.com's (Weather Underground) comma delimited files mentioned in my previous post?

[NachtRitter]

Actually not positive what exact mechanism is used... I tell the program which specific weather station to use, and then each GPS track I import, I can also tell it to retrieve the associated weather data (that is, for the same time period as my gps track). Then I can view a graph of temp, humidity, precip, pressure, wind speed data against the corresponding gps track.

If I have a chance, I'll add a screenshot this week to show you what I mean.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Actually not positive what exact mechanism is used... I tell the program which specific weather station to use, and then each GPS track I import, I can also tell it to retrieve the associated weather data (that is, for the same time period as my gps track).

I was thinking maybe SportTracks itself (not the plug-in) might have a regular item on some menu (File Menu?) to import data???

[NachtRitter]

Ah... well, not exactly.

SportTracks itself is geared for gps type of data. It can import various formats (I do believe CSV might be one of the options), but it likes xml data best... either it's own xml format (sportlog.xml) or a standard gps data format, .gpx.

However, the program (and it's own data format) is extensible, which is where the plugin comes in.

Just curious: Why would you not use the plugin to import the weather data automatically from your weather station of choice? That seems like it'd be the easiest approach, rather than getting the CSV data yourself and then importing?

[PaleMelanesian]

I like to use this:
Yesterday's Weather - Local Weather for Lewisville, TX (75067) - weather.com

You just enter your zip and the date in the url and you get hourly data for that day.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Just curious: Why would you not use the plugin to import the weather data automatically from your weather station of choice? That seems like it'd be the easiest approach, rather than getting the CSV data yourself and then importing?

The idea was to be able use data from more than one station
(closest to station A at start of trip, closest to station B after X miles, closest to station C after Y miles ...)

In any case, for me - out here in the boonies - this is all mostly theoretic. There are places on my route where the nearest station is probably 70 miles away. The closest station lies ~21 miles west of the southwest corner of my 150 mile nightly loop. The only other nearby weather station lies ~23 miles northwest of the northwest corner of the same loop. There are nights when neither comes anywhere close to matching conditions on the route. eg. 10-15 mph winds (gusts to 20) at one station; 0-5 mph winds at the other station; and conditions on the route are anything from 0-5 mph winds at one location to 30-35 mph winds (gusts to 45) at another location.

[NachtRitter]

I agree with your concerns about the weather being very different between the measured data and your location. Even the (relatively short) commute from where I live to where I work yields significant differences (often 10 or more degrees difference). You are right... neither the SportTrack program or the plugin would be able able to handle that.

Hmmm... wonder if it'd better to capture the temp, humidity, pressure, airspeed, etc directly from the car itself. Seems like that'd give you the 'best' numbers. Maybe one of those little "weather stations" tucked up in a protected area under the car? (so that it can get to the ambient temp rather than the in-car temp). Then it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to develop a custom plugin for that in order to take advantage of the very nice graphing and reporting capabilities of SportTracks.