erroneous station location ?

[mdespriee]

Hello, I'm experimenting your API. I used a bounding box query.

GET https://api.synopticdata.com/v2/stations/latest?&token=REDACTED&bbox=-12,36,38,58&within=120

So this box is roughly Europe.

Among the results, I get a station named CW5775 Washington Township, but longitude/latitude are in France (1.92,47.25), which is consistent with timezone (Europe/Paris). What is going on ?

        {
            "STATUS": "ACTIVE",
            "MNET_ID": "65",
            "PERIOD_OF_RECORD": {
                "start": "2006-04-26T00:00:00Z",
                "end": "2021-12-23T14:03:00Z"
            },
            "ELEVATION": "344",
            "NAME": "CW5775 Washington Township",
            "STID": "C5775",
            "SENSOR_VARIABLES": {
                "wind_speed": {
                    "wind_speed_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "air_temp": {
                    "air_temp_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "wind_gust": {
                    "wind_gust_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "pressure": {
                    "pressure_value_1d": {
                        "derived_from": [
                            "altimeter_value_1"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "wind_direction": {
                    "wind_direction_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "wind_chill": {
                    "wind_chill_value_1d": {
                        "derived_from": [
                            "air_temp_value_1",
                            "wind_speed_value_1"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "wind_cardinal_direction": {
                    "wind_cardinal_direction_value_1d": {
                        "derived_from": [
                            "wind_direction_value_1"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "relative_humidity": {
                    "relative_humidity_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "sea_level_pressure": {
                    "sea_level_pressure_value_1d": {
                        "derived_from": [
                            "pressure_value_1d",
                            "air_temp_value_1",
                            "relative_humidity_value_1"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "heat_index": {
                    "heat_index_value_1d": {
                        "derived_from": [
                            "air_temp_value_1",
                            "relative_humidity_value_1"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "dew_point_temperature": {
                    "dew_point_temperature_value_1d": {
                        "derived_from": [
                            "air_temp_value_1",
                            "relative_humidity_value_1"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "precip_accum_24_hour": {
                    "precip_accum_24_hour_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "precip_accum_since_local_midnight": {
                    "precip_accum_since_local_midnight_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                },
                "altimeter": {
                    "altimeter_value_1": {
                        "period_of_record": {
                            "start": "",
                            "end": ""
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "ELEV_DEM": "337.9",
            "LONGITUDE": "1.92750",
            "STATE": "NJ",
            "OBSERVATIONS": {
                "precip_accum_24_hour_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:45:00Z",
                    "value": 0
                },
                "wind_gust_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:43:00Z",
                    "value": 5.813
                },
                "dew_point_temperature_value_1d": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": -6.93
                },
                "wind_cardinal_direction_value_1d": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": "W"
                },
                "pressure_value_1d": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 100803.41
                },
                "wind_direction_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 274
                },
                "sea_level_pressure_value_1d": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 102132.29
                },
                "precip_accum_since_local_midnight_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 0
                },
                "altimeter_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 102065.704
                },
                "air_temp_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 0
                },
                "wind_speed_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 0.448
                },
                "relative_humidity_value_1": {
                    "date_time": "2021-12-23T14:47:00Z",
                    "value": 60
                }
            },
            "RESTRICTED": false,
            "QC_FLAGGED": false,
            "LATITUDE": "47.25733",
            "TIMEZONE": "Europe/Paris",
            "ID": "15785"
        },

[joeyoun9]

Hi @mdespriee, apologies for the late response - this platform hasn't been super active lately.

What has happened here is something we have very limited means to prevent, which is that an automated station location metadata change put the station in a new location, which may have been inaccurate. This is not unusual with the CWOP network, and we have limited ability to prevent it automatically. Making it trickier, there are times a private station legitimately moves from North America to Europe. Usually when stations are on the wrong continent it is because a negative sign was dropped from a longitude or latitude. That was not the case here.

https://explore.synopticdata.com/C5775/map-history

Because the current weather observations match the previous location exactly, and the French location poorly, we are updating our record to use the previous location (from 2019), but you may want to exclude mesonet 65 using &network=!65 as this issue is far more common with this network than others.

Some metadata, such as elevation and timezone is set automatically by our systems after a location change, so the timezone matching the location is to be expected, even if the location is inaccurate.

Joe