On July 8 2018 we had an historic rain event that triggered flash flooding and water rescues all over the area. I was excited to see what my rain gauge had recorded, and as soon as I had an opportunity I checked my web site. I was shocked to see that no rainfall had been recorded that day. I checked the console for the Vantage Vue and it also read no rainfall that day., We had some rain a couple of days earlier and that had registered, but nothing for the big event that was still occurring as I checked.

This obviously upset me, and I went out in the rain to check my weather station. I assumed that something was blocking the gauge and preventing the water from entering it. When I went outside to look, I saw that nothing was blocking the gauge and that the rain was entering and exiting the gauge normally. At this point the only thing I could think of was to take down the weather station and attempt to service it in my dry garage.

Once I got the gauge down from its’ pole and into the garage I started inspecting it. I learned (and should have remembered) that the rain and temperature sensors were designed to be easily removed and cleaned. I removed both of those sensors and gave them a good cleaning. I didn’t find anything clogging the rain gauge but I cleaned it out anyway. Then I reassembled the station and reinstalled it on the pole.

When I went back inside and checked the weather station console it said it was not receiving the weather station at all. I was unable to get the station and console to pair, so I took the station back inside to try and pair them up in a place where it was nice and dry. I eventually got them paired back up and reinstalled the weather station back on its’ pole for hopefully the last time.

Going back inside and looking at the console I saw rain being recorded once again. Success finally.I The moral to the story is that I need to do regular maintenance on the weather station. Davis designed it to make it easy to clean. I just hadn’t done it for a long time. I’m going to add a reminder to my calendar to clean out the gauges annually at a minimum.