Monthly log files

Files are automatically created with names in the form <Month><Year>log.txt (for example, the file for August 2009 is called Aug09log.txt); an entry is made to the current month's file every ten minutes (default value; you can change this on the station settings screen), recording the current sensor values. The file is in comma-separated format with one line per entry. For more information on these files see in the Cumulus help file, in the section “Data log file format”.

Correcting any data problems

See FAQ: I've just installed Cumulus and it didn't download all the old data from my weather station, FAQ: How do I correct my all-time or monthly records and FAQ: I can't find my data files.

After you have edited (or created any missing) Monthly log files, you can:

• update the Alltime.ini by choosing all time records from the Edit menu. This is a text editor, and works best when at full screen. Click the Help button for detailed instructions.
• (if the monthly log relates to the current year) update the year.ini by choosing This year's records from the Edit menu. This is a text editor, and works best when at full screen. Click the Help button for detailed instructions.
• (from version 1.9.3) update the monthlyalltime.ini by choosing all time records from the Edit menu. This is a text editor, and works best when at full screen. Click the Help button for detailed instructions.
• create the relevant monthly and/or annual NOAA style report by choosing NOAA Monthly Report or NOAA Annual Report from the View menu, then select the required period using the selectors, click the Update Display button to see various statistics calculated from processing the monthly log files, and finally press Save button to store the new or amended report. (Note: You can generate a NOAA report for a period without a monthly log, if data for that period is present on dayfile.txt. Generation of complete NOAA reports requires information in dayfile.txt, and the monthly logs for period in question).
• use create missing button in the dayfile.txt selection in the Edit menu; This is a text editor, and works best when at full screen. Cumulus will then look through all monthly log files and create records for any missing dates in the dayfile. (It creates a file in the Cumulus folder called dayfileeditlog.txt which contains the entries it created). Click the Help button for more information.

Editing within Cumulus

Highs and lows and the daily summaries (dayfile.txt) can all be edited within Cumulus, and the editors allow you to fetch the data from the monthly log files and dayfile.txt so that you can select data to replace the current ones. So once you have corrected the data in the monthly log files and dayfile.txt, you can correct the highs and lows using the editors.

Manipulation outside Cumulus

Any log files for previous months can be edited with Cumulus running, unless you are trying to view them!

Tip -- take a copy of the file before you work on it outside Cumulus (perhaps call it <Month><Year>log.csv).

Edit the file using an editor that treats all fields as text (a text editor or a spreadsheet program that can be instructed not to recognise special field (like date) types).

Each line must contain the fields in correct sequence (i.e. nulls ',,' are not allowed in the line, but since new builds add to number of fields, Cumulus can accept lines without the more recent fields at the end).

Important: The date format uses two digits for the year. Do not edit this file using Excel or similar, as it is likely to change the dates to have four figure years, and then Cumulus will no longer be able to use the file.

Times in these files are in the form hh:mm using the 24 hour clock and local time (system time). Note that the fields related to solar data will only contain valid data if your station has the appropriate sensor(s). Apart from bearings (stored as integers), most value fields are in format x.y using your system decimal notation. See Monthly log files: Example lines from the file.

Importing pre-Cumulus data

Given that monthly log files are used as input for updating the all-time, all-monthly (from version 1.9.3), and this year record extremes, for creating missing dayfile.txt entries, and for creating NOAA style reports, you may have some information for a period before you first starting using Cumulus that you want to include.

There are some postings in the support Forum about importing past data, and it is too wide a subject to fully cover here. Essentially match the fields listed in Monthly log files: List of fields in the file below with the fields you have available in your source.

There are some issues to consider. For example, wind directions might be reported as cardinal points (north, south etc) and need converting to bearings in degrees (spreadsheet packages provide look up functionality to do such conversions), and dates and times might need some pre-processing (spreadsheet packages usually have ability to select part of a text string and to cocatenate a number of strings) to convert them to text in the formats mentioned above.

Cumulus has various wind speed, temperature, and rainfall related fields, not directly available from for example EasyWeather outputs. See FAQ: What do the various wind speeds in Cumulus correspond to with Fine Offset stations and other answers in the FAQ to pursue this or visit the support Forum for assistance.

The date that Cumulus first started operating, does not need to be updated for Cumulus to recognise earlier monthly log files in its data subfolder. However, the web tag associated with that date is on the default Cumulus recordsT.htm template, and you might want to amend the associated label wording to indicate it is the date that full Cumulus parameter logging/calculation began, rather than the date the station began operating.

If you do need to edit the start date, you can edit the StartDate= line in cumulus.ini with Cumulus stopped, but back up everything first!

Using Monthly logs to deal with shorter (or incomplete) dayfile.txt records

NOTE if dates are present in monthly log and dayfile.txt but not all fields for that date exist in dayfile.txt (e.g. records created by earlier version of Cumulus: One method is (not near rollover time) to (1) take a copy of dayfile.txt, (2) delete any days with partial information (e.g. from Cumulus versions that created fewer fields), (3) use create missing in the dayfile.txt selection in the Edit menu option of Cumulus (note whilst datafile.txt normally calculates all parameters like minimums and maximums from very frequent samples of your weather station, the resolution of create missing is limited to the interval between logging records in the monthly log), (4) rename the new dayfile.txt as dayfile(generated).txt and create a new dayfile.txt and (5) use a text editor to merge the required fields from the new dayfile(generated).txt with all other fields from reading only the copy of the original file. (This method preserves the original so you can experiment with different merges and do some cross-checking).

List of fields in the file

• 00: Date in the form dd/mm/yy or dd-mm-yy
• 01: Current time
• 02: Current temperature
• 03: Current humidity
• 04: Current dewpoint
• 05: Current wind speed
• 06: Recent (10-min) high gust
• 07: Average wind bearing
• 08: Current rainfall rate
• 09: Total rainfall today so far
• 10: Current sea level pressure
• 11: Total rainfall counter
• 12: Inside temperature
• 13: Inside humidity
• 14: Current gust (i.e. 'Latest')
• 15: wind chill
• 16: Heat index
• 17: UV Index
• 18: Solar Radiation

Added in 1.9.1:

• 19: Evapotranspiration
• 20: Annual Evapotranspiration
• 21: Apparent temperature
• 22: Current theoretical max solar radiation
• 23: Hours of sunshine so far today

Added in 1.9.2:

• 24: Current Wind bearing

Added in 1.9.3:

• 25: RG-11 rain today

Added in 1.9.4 beta:

• 26: Total Rainfall since midnight

Example lines from the file

Note that your field delimiters may be different, and your date delimiter too.

An extract of a few lines of the file (v.1.9.0)

Here logging is quarter hourly, the field delimiter is a semicolon, the decimal separator is a comma, and the date separator a dash.

30-09-10;19:00;16,4;94;15,4;5,2;13,3;17;3,6;21,0;995,3;47,7;25,6;62;6,1;16,4;16,4;0,0;0 
30-09-10;19:15;16,4;94;15,4;5,6;11,2;12;18,0;24,0;995,0;50,7;25,6;62;7,2;16,4;16,4;0,0;0
30-09-10;19:30;16,2;94;15,2;7,9;15,8;355;7,2;25,8;994,3;52,5;25,7;62;12,2;16,2;16,2;0,0;0
30-09-10;19:45;16,0;94;15,0;9,9;19,4;7;7,2;27,9;993,3;54,6;25,7;62;14,8;15,8;16,0;0,0;0
30-09-10;20:00;15,9;94;14,9;12,4;20,9;354;7,2;30,0;993,0;56,7;25,7;62;19,4;15,4;15,9;0,0;0
30-09-10;20:15;15,8;94;14,8;8,4;15,8;349;14,4;32,7;993,4;59,4;25,8;61;12,2;15,8;15,8;0,0;0
30-09-10;20:30;15,4;94;14,4;13,8;33,1;317;28,8;40,5;993,7;67,2;25,8;61;23,4;14,7;15,4;0,0;0
30-09-10;20:45;15,1;94;14,1;20,3;34,2;356;7,2;43,8;992,3;70,5;25,8;60;29,5;13,8;15,1;0,0;0
30-09-10;21:00;15,3;94;14,3;20,2;35,6;358;10,8;46,8;991,0;73,5;25,8;60;28,1;14,0;15,3;0,0;0
30-09-10;21:15;15,3;95;14,5;16,6;31,7;358;10,8;49,5;991,4;76,2;25,8;60;20,9;14,3;15,3;0,0;0
30-09-10;21:30;15,3;94;14,3;14,0;27,0;324;18,0;54,3;992,3;81,0;25,8;60;15,8;14,5;15,3;0,0;0
30-09-10;21:45;15,2;94;14,2;13,0;25,6;323;10,8;57,9;992,3;84,6;25,8;59;24,5;14,5;15,2;0,0;0
30-09-10;22:00;15,0;94;14,0;16,7;31,7;312;10,8;60,6;993,0;87,3;25,8;59;23,4;13,9;15,0;0,0;0
30-09-10;22:15;14,9;94;13,9;16,0;30,6;357;10,8;63,0;991,6;89,7;25,8;59;20,9;13,9;14,9;0,0;0
30-09-10;22:30;14,9;94;13,9;17,6;31,7;3;3,6;63,3;990,6;90,0;25,8;59;19,4;13,7;14,9;0,0;0

this is an example of a file from 1.9.1, with solar data:

Here logging is increased to every five minutes, and using UK settings, the field delimiter is a comma, the decimal separator is a full stop, and the date separator a slash.

22/04/11,10:25,8.1,96,7.5,13,20,138,0.0,0.0,1013.24,215.2,20.3,53,17,4.8,8.1,0.0,197,0.08,171.88,3.4,663,0.0
22/04/11,10:30,8.1,96,7.5,13,20,142,0.0,0.0,1013.28,215.2,20.2,53,11,4.8,8.1,0.0,216,0.08,171.88,3.3,673,0.0
22/04/11,10:35,8.1,96,7.5,12,18,142,0.0,0.0,1013.31,215.2,20.2,53,11,5.1,8.1,0.0,227,0.08,171.88,3.8,682,0.0

and from version 1.9.2:

Here logging is at the default interval, and the delimiters have their default settings.

01/10/11,04:40,18.0,75,13.5,5.0,6.7,169,0.0,0.0,1021.4,885.3,24.4,61,5.6,18.0,18.0,0.0,0,0.00,0.00,17.5,0,0.0,158
01/10/11,04:50,17.9,75,13.4,4.5,9.5,169,0.0,0.0,1021.4,885.3,24.4,61,2.0,17.9,17.9,0.0,0,0.00,0.00,17.5,0,0.0,180
01/10/11,05:00,17.8,75,13.3,5.1,9.5,177,0.0,0.0,1021.2,885.3,24.4,61,7.5,17.8,17.8,0.0,0,0.00,0.00,17.2,0,0.0,180