New b225: Use <amount> tag to provide rain/snow intensity

[par]

I have added a new tag to YoWindow XML format - sky/precipitation/<amount>.
This is an alternative way to provide the intensity of rain or snow.

The change was suggested by Nico in this topic.
http://yowindow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=365

amount is a child of precipitation tag
<amount>
@value - the amount of rain or snow per hour (mm/hour)

Most weather stations have a parameter called rainintensity (rainrate).
Use it instead as the value for <amount>.
If you provide amount you don't have to provide precipitation/@intensity.

Example
<sky>
<precipitation>
<amount value="18"/>
</precipitation>
</sky>

Also, guys, I need your advice.
In YoWindow we have a rain/snow icon for each kind of intensity.
The number of rain-drops or snow-flakes reflects the intensity.

I have doubts about how to translate precipitation amount to intensity.
This is my first try.

precipitation amount (mm/hour) / intensity
(0, 5] - light (*)
(5 - 10] - regular (**)
> 10 - heavy (***)

Do you think this is a plausable conversion?

[nico]

Great Par, that makes it much easier for many weatherstations and avoids the use of php.
I'll check the rainlevels tonight and will let you know how this corresponds to light/heacy etc.

rgds
nico

[par]

Good!
Looking forward to your response.

[nico]

Par,




According to http://tripatlas.com/Rain AND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain

very light rain — when the precipitation rate is < 0.25 mm/hour

light rain — when the precipitation rate is between 0.25 mm/hour - 1.0mm/hour

moderate rain — when the precipitation rate is between 1.0 mm/hour - 4.0mm/hour

heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is between 4.0 mm/hour - 16.0mm/hour

very heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is between 16.0 mm/hour - 50mm/hour

extreme rain — when the precipitation rate is > 50.0 mm/hour

Occasionally you might want to throw a 'cats and dogs' into that as well

Hope this helps,
Nico

[par]

Ah!
Thank you very much.
I will update YoWindow according to this information shortly.

It's raining cats and dogs.
A nice idea.
So we can display some cats and dogs when the rain gets very intense
I have added it to our idea list, thanks!