Hello From Andy

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Hi Guys,

Fairly new to all of this. First started collecting weather data in December 2010 whislt i was signed off work for a period of time. I had always been interested in the weather (and of course  having an electronics background have always been interested in gadgets). The first equipment was purchased from Maplin; 6 months later i went the full hog and purchased the Davis Vantage Pro2. Last year i also added the boltek detector as i love wathcing storms however, since the install my location has not really had any significant sferic activity  .

I started setting up my website in September 2011 - this was the frst time i had played with web design and it was not long before i started getting hooked! The web address sounds a little odd for a weather station - it was to be used for a friend that was setting up an online bear shop, but things did not work out, so i took it over!

The latest addition was WXSIM in July this year.

Rgds

Andy.

[ukwoody]

Hi Andy,

a very warm welcome to the Forum. Small, but friendly!  You've got a very interesting web site there, I'd not seen a local forecast based on wxsim before - something I'm now going to look more into.

Please join in and help make the forum a success.  I'm sure Budgie will be along soon to give you an "official" welcome

Typical - no thunder since you got your Boltek, shame it doesn't warn of snow... it might have been useful at the weekend, lol.

Kind regards

Woody

[Budgie]

Hi Andy,

Glad you made it on here. 

Yep, WXSim is a great tool for producing your own forecasts. I was lucky and got the Pro version before Tom split the program into the Pro & not so Pro versions, so I got all the add-ons for a cheaper price.

Have you tried out the latest StormVue NGX for your Boltek (if you're running Nexstorm software for it)?

Martin 

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Hi martin,

Good to be here.......

Yes i am using the latest NGX and think its a great addition. Really looking forward to what lies ahead with NexStorm V2 and its new ranging capabilities . I'm currently giving my viewers a choice as to how they want to display the lightning - ie the old stormvue, NGX and NSDisplay. Todate, NSDisplay gets the most hits (well the few i get on a daily basis lol).

Are there major advantages over the Pro version of WXSIM - i've read that it learns from its errors during previous forecasts?

[Budgie]

I'm a moderator of the Astrogenics forum and get to play with some of the new things Relko is working on.
I've had an Alfa version of Nexstorm running for a few months that registers strikes at over 2500 miles, although the map range only goes out to 1500 miles.
At the moment the change in range is the only difference between the standard Nexstorm and the one I'm using and there hasn't been any new additions as Relko was working on the release of NGX, but there is progression. 

I tend to use NSDisplay as the main lightning display on my own website and I also have WASPII on there, which gives triangulated data plots from StrikeStar EU.

As for WXSim, yes it can "learn" by running a comparison program it looks at the past forecasts and compares them to the actuals, then produces a set of offsets to bring the forecast a little closer to the actuals.
There are also a load of personal preference settings that can be altered in the Pro version, things which are fixed in the standard version. 

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Just done a refresh on the look and feel of my website. I liked the carterlake style, but wanted it to be a little different (that's just the way I am). Let me know what you guys think.

Martin - might consider upgrading wxsim in the near future - do you think it is worth doing?

[Budgie]

The site's looking good there Andy. 

As for WXSim upgrade, it's less of a pain on the wallet to upgrade once you've got the main program but it depends on how much you're going to use the extra facilities.
Are your current forecasts quite accurate and what else do you want out of WXSim?
I'm not really that well placed to say if the upgrade is worth it as I bought WXSim before Tom split it into the basic & pro versions so I always had, what is now, the pro version.
It maybe worth an email to Tom to see what extras you're going to get for your money and then decide.