ThirdAveWind, NEWS!

[May 18, 2015] The weather instrument went offline on May 5. I believe this is due to the changing of our host form EFI to Gilead. We had been using a wireless broadband router with a Verizon data plan, so it isn't the internet that was lost but, probably, that someone physically disconnected the console and server from power without informing us. That is very unfortunate but easily remedied as long as they didn't destroy or remove our equipment. I'll be returning the new webcam to Gilead soon and should be able to find out what happened to the weather console and server then, and hopefully get the weather service up and running again.

[August 14, 2013] Someone asked me the other day what time scale is on the hourly history for ThirdAveWind. He was convinced that the scale is UTC. I said I'd check. In fact, the scale in the data is simply 'hourly', and there are 24 data points for speed, direction, and temperature (etc., but not graphed in the app). So hour 0 is the present and hour 24 is 24 hours ago. Now, the question might still be asked as to what 'now' refers to. 'Now' would not really matter what time zone or time convention is used, since 'now' is still 'now'. The way time and date are displayed could be (and would be) impacted by the timezone, but the graph histories are not.

The good news is that ThirdAveWind has been rewritten to support iOS 6 and the iPad, and some features have been added. I'll try to get the fixed/new version up to the App Store as soon as possible.

ThirdAveWind, Current Version is 5.7

ThirdAveWind is an iPhone application that is dedicated to monitoring the Third Avenue kiteboarding and sailboarding weather instrument mounted on top of the Electronics for Imaging (soon to be Gilead Sciences) building in Foster City, CA.

The weather instrument being used is a Davis Vantage Pro2, and the weather information is served using a Meteohub weather server. The data is collected every 15 seconds (or so) and posted in Weather Display Live format to the Arbor-Studios website. The data is acquired on the same schedule by the iPhone application.

ThirdAveWind displays different background images and audio based on wind speed and direction.

The default setting for audio is OFF as a consideration to those who might be checking conditions at 3rd during meetings.

The information screen shows some more of the data that is available through the Davis Vantage Pro2. More may be added in the future.

Release History

5.3

5.2

5.0

4.8

4.1

4.0

3.3

3.2

3.0

2.0

1.06

Citations

We would like to thank Scott Ellington for letting us use his photograph on our splash screen. We would also like to thank Clark Beckstead for his photograph of 3rd Avenue looking toward Coyote Point at sunset.

Differences with Flash Weather Web Site

In April, 2010, an experimental version of ThirdAveWind (and ThirdAveSuite) was deployed that eliminates the conversion from knots to mph for wind speed values. The intention of this change was to accommodate the differences between observed wind speed values on the EFI roof, where the weather sensors are located, and the observed wind speed values at the corner by the sailboarding ramp. Since that deployment the values displayed in these apps have been aligned much better with the observed values at the sailboard ramp. In fact, the values in the apps now appear to be between the values at the sailboard ramp and the values at the channel marker, whereas the values from the weather sensor align better with the values at the channel marker or values at the SFO sensor. As such, this change has been made permanent, and users of ThirdAveWind and ThirdAveSuite should know that the values displayed in these apps are not observed values but are intended to comply with our goal of providing accurate information on the kiting/sailboarding conditions at 3rd Avenue.

Proviso

ThirdAveWind was designed to work on Apple 3G-generation iPhones. It may or may not work with earlier iPhone models. If you find that the application is crashing on startup please contact ArborStudios and we will try to help diagnose the problem but there is a chance that the older phones just don't have the horsepower that ThirdAveWind requires to run.

Tutorial

A ThirdAveWind tutorial has been written to introduce the user to the features of this application and its use. Please select the following link to view it: Tutorial.

Sample Images of Application

Future Plans/Improvements


Space Provided By Hurricane Electric