Some comments on the precip data , in case there is any confusionand wvally4.
The PIC processor on the ETI gauges generates a tip count as shown below:
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The above snippet shows what appears to be a false tip at Dec 16 05:42 UTC, (Dec 15 22:42 MST). No other stations reported precip, and the longwave in (Rlw.in) doesn't indicate the presence of clouds.
This station had about 17 false tips over that night of Dec 15/16, and a similar looking set of false tips the next night, after the station visit of Dec 16. Doing a quick look back through the plots shows similar false tips every night between Nov 23 and Dec 1 with the exception of the nights of Nov 27 and 28. There are a few false-looking tips during the day, but most of them are at night. Typically the tips occurred throughout the night, and were not an isolated incident which one might expect from a prankster.
A tip is .01 inch of precip in 5 seconds. In the example above, the ETI at station 4 is reporting every 5.04 seconds. Using a value of 5 seconds is in error by less than 1 part in 100.
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