brianmaas wrote:...Are you incorporating that CIMIS data into the plugin? It's California specific, but that's where i am. If not i'm interested in the logic you are using. I don't quite get how to use it... ...i do a simple check for local rainfall based on weatherunderground data. If there is over .1 in. of rain in the day it won't water for 2 days.
I probably won't incorporate the CIMIS data collection into the plugin because, as you note, it is not broadly applicable. But, there is a second reason, getting the data is not straight forward. First, I had to subscribe to the data, I used the
SPATIAL CIMIS data because my local station does not provide ETo. There is no way to get the SPATIAL CIMIS data online
* (Regular station data can be pulled from an ftp site). You must have the report emailed to you each morning. It is sent around 6:00am. I chose to have it sent to my regular mailbox and then wrote a rule in the Mail app that runs an AppleScript on the report. The script digs the data out of the email and places it into Indigo variables. Then, I have an Indigo trigger that looks for any change in the ETo variable and it calculates an Irrigation Multiplier factor, which is saved in another variable. (I chose to have separate scripts so, in the event I get a better way to access the CIMIS data I can just change the data access portion of the process.)
To calculate the factor I looked at 10 years worth of CIMIS data for my area and found the average high value, and set that as 1. Next I set my zone watering durations for the length of time they should run during the hot summer months (Ok, we don't do hot here, but you get the idea). Then, each day I calculate the daily ETo as a percentage of the annual high average and that is my daily factor. For example the daily high average is 0.18. Today's ETo data was 0.09. So, my multiplier is 0.5.
I manage rainfall data separately. First, somewhat like Jay, I figured out how much rain was significant, I chose 1/2 inch. Then, each day it rains I add the rainfall to a rainfall_total variable and each day it doesn't rain, I subtract 1/2 inch from that total. Any day the total is over 1/4 inch, the multiplier factor is set to 0. Likewise, if the NWS forecast says there is an 80% or greater chance of rain, the factor is set to 0.
I'd be happy to share my scripts, just PM me.
* Well, it is possible to get the data online, but I could never get curl to get through the authentication process on the CIMIS web site.