I don’t know why but I seem to like this good news/bad news routine. I’ll start out with the good but even the bad news isn’t really all that bad.

Snow Recording, Reporting and Displaying Improved

In the past, entering snow data was totally uncontrolled. Consequently, volunteers could enter anything they wanted to represent the amount of snowfall and we ended up with readings like 10”-12”, 10 in., 10 inches, about 10 inches, approx. 10, etc. Obviously these types of readings made it impossible to generate reports and maps. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the records so they are all in a common format and also developed error-checking routines to prevent these sorts of entries from getting into the database again. As I observe other types of data entry errors, I’ll add more code to the system to try to make this as ‘bullet-proof’ as the rain recording system.

I have also developed a couple of reports so you can see how much snow has been occurring and additionally developed plotting routines to you can seen on calendars and maps when and how much snow we have been having. This has been integrated with the rainfall maps and charts so you should be able to use these in the same manner you have been used to throughout the year.

To view the data, go to ‘reports’ and select the ‘New Snow’ option to see the calendar showing dates snow has been reported and what the maximum amount was on each date. Then clicking on any colored box will take you to the map for that date. Using the ‘maps’ option instead of ‘reports’ will take you straight to the maps if that is your choice. Another report in the ‘reports’ section shows a summary of all the snow measurements in the database.

Once the calendar view was completed, other entry errors such as snow recorded in July and August were noted and corrected. These improvements to the snow records have proven to be not only interesting but have improved the data quality significantly as well.

Potential Website Problem

This is really not a significant problem but more of an advance notice that as we move forward from 2004 to 2005, some features on the website may not work properly without a little ‘tweaking’. If you do see any problems, don’t worry about them. Next week I’ll be going through the site to find any of those problems and fix them as I find them. If you still see any problems after January 7, 2005, please do let me know though because that probably means I have not detected them yet.

Thanks again for volunteering for NeRAIN.

Rich Kern
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
301 Centennial Mall South
P.O. Box 94676
Lincoln, NE 68509-4676
(402) 471-3948
rkern@dnr.ne.gov