General informations, history and the name

    Vouhead Weather is an amateur private weather station which is located in Northern Greece. Specifically in Central Macedonia, on the southeast outskirts of Thessaloniki, at latitude 40.566480-N, longitude 22.974673-E and 1 km away from the sea of Thermaikos bay, at an altitude of 21 meters.

    The story begins like most weather fans since childhood. Loving the weather and especially snow, combined with creative manufacturing concern led me to the first attempt to monitor the weather. On the 70's and at age of 13 I got my first thermometer. I bought it from a store with photographic equipment and regularly it's use was the proper temperature of the developer and fixer liquids. I liked it because it was in a protective metal housing. Also I built a wind-vane. So I started to record in an folder, temperature, wind direction, wind strain and if it was raining or snowing. All very simple but with great zeal and enthusiasm! This was done three times a day. At 08:00, and 14:30 to 22:15. Of course after a few years this zeal was reduced and somewhere in 1978 I halted this process. The wind-vane does not exist anymore but the thermometer is resting in his box and when I want to go back in time, I get it in my hand and smile durring memories of another era are comming back! An era that today's capabilities after the electronic revolution looked like a senario from a James Bond movie!
    Later in 1991 I made my first weather station. Already there were electronic thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, etc, and as time passed, all these became better and cheaper. This station had temperature and humidity readings with maximum and minimum, wind direction and wind speed. All on a console at home, connected by cable to the external unit. Was very successful, had few problems and worked tirelessly for 12 years until the summer of 2003 when he was destroyed by hail. In 2004 I repaired him and gave him to a friend. Still works!
    In January 2004 I got my first wireless weather station. The WS3000 and the PC2500 data logger from ELV, so I could see weather data on a computer screen. Many new and unfamiliar things to study! In the beginning I used the simple program from the station. After six months I got the very good program PCwetterstation. Although it had the ability to upload data on the internet I did not yet have the necessary knowledge, nor broadband connection to do it.
    The next step in 2006 was the program Weather Display, which now is the basic program and a broadband connection conn-x 768/192 that within the next years get better reaching 2.000/250. Soon after came the Weather Display LIVE application and finally the first visualization of the station on the internet! Also in 2006 I got the lightning detector LD-250 from Boltek and on the page of Weather Display LIVE were data from the detector.
    After much reading, searching and sleepless nights, in 2007 I made my first weather website in html language. Also I got the FCS-1060 IPcam and the DOH-1000 dome from LevelOne. Live image was there!
    Finally, in 2008 and having the necessary knowledge, I made the big step to get the wireless weather station Davis Vantage Pro 2 with 24hrs FARS and additional sensors for more measurements. At the same time I built the website which exists now in php language and I got the forecasting program WxSim and WxSimate. Also I got a Pentium 4, which is from then the dedicated weather-PC and a UPS with 1500VA, so all the hardware from Vouhead Weather can keep on going for an hour, in case of a power failure.
    In 2009 I got the JW24F8-QCK from Code Mercenaries and participate in the QCN quake catcher project.
    In 2010 I chose the broadband connection of Hol 24.000/1.000, always in theory, of course! The old ELV still works and gives exept weather data, measurements for use at home (solar collector, boiler, rooms conditions, etc.) together with the old program, PCwetterstation. Also in August, I upgraded the UPS with batteries (100 Ah), so that the one hour is now more than ten.
    Still learning and trying to make Vouhead Weather interesting, better and certainly useful!
    TO BE CONTINUED....

Thermometer and wind direction/strain (1977)	Old weather station (1995)
Old weather station on the new roof (2001)	The ELV WS3000 replaces the Old weather station (2004)
Davis Vantage Pro 2 with 24hrs FARS, IPcam LevelOne FCS-1060 in the DOH-1000 dome and the Boltek LD-250 antenna (2008)	The second Davis station with Day FARS, Leaf Wetness and Soil Temperature/Moisture (2008)
Both Davis and ELV in an all view photo (2009)

    The name Vouhead is the composition of two words. Vou and head. Else in greek Vou and kefalas. Vou(s) is for ox and kefalas is for the big head. Voukefalas (Bucephalus) was the name of a great horse, The horse which accompany for about 20 years Alexander III, son of Phillipos II king of Macedonia. Most known as Alexander the Great. The idea is to give the Opportunity to Bucephalus for traveling the now known world in a pacific way. So I dedicate this weather station to this horse and to all them who are not known but put there stone so that those 10 years in 330 bc were interesting and changed the course of history.

Alexander the Great, training Bucephalus. Erected (1883) from Sir John Steell (1804-91). City Chambers on the Royal Mile street, Edinburgh. Photographed 2007 by George P. Landow
Bucephalus, from (ALEXANDROS - The Myth of the East, The Dream of the West) by Stamatis Spanoudakis 1994

Equipment & Software

Vouhead Weather is equiped with the following hardware:
  1. Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus with 24hrs FARS (station1 ISS 10m)
  2. Davis Temperature/Humidity with Day FARS (station2 1,5m)
  3. Davis Leaf Wetness (station3 1,5m)
  4. Davis Leaf Wetness (station3 0,5m)
  5. Davis Temperature/Moisture (station3 -10cm)
  6. Davis Temperature/Moisture (station3 -50cm)
  7. Davis Vantage Pro2 (console)
  8. Davis Weatherlink-6510SER (data logger)
  9. Boltek LD-250 (lightning detector - antenna 10m)
10. JW24F8-QCK (quake catcher sensor)
11. LevelOne FCS-1060 (station IP webcam)
12. LevelOne DOH-1000 (station IP webcam dome)
13. Pentium-4, Intel-DG965WH, CPU-3.4GHz, RAM-2GB with Raid 1 and WinXP (weather-PC)
14. TurboX UPS-1500SD (UPS with external batterys 100 Ah for more than 10 hr's autonomy)

And with the following software:
  1. Weather Display (weather stations program)
  2. Weather Display Live(weather stations internet apliccation)
  3. Weatherlink (weather stations program)
  4. Virtual VP (virtualized access to a single Vantage Pro console utility)
  5. NexStorm with CV map (lightning detection and analysis program)
  6. StormVue (lightning detection internet apliccation)
  7. WxSim (weather forecasting program)
  8. WxSimate (weather data gather program)
  9. SeqDownload (auto downloading utilitty used for the IP webcam)
10. System Scheduler (programs and applications auto runner utilitty)
11. BOINC Manager (program for the QCN quake catcher project)
12. UPSilon 2000 (UPS monitor program)

Thank You !!!

Vouhead Weather templates are based, like many other weather sites, on the design by Tom at CarterLake.org with PHP conversion by Ken at Saratoga-Weather.org Ken is a phenomenal PHP script writer.
His site is a must-visit for those who are building a weather website. Special Thanks to them.

Special Thanks to Kevin Reed at TNET Weather. He was the first to implement the template and did many of our site's look-and-feel graphics. Kevin also started this crazy explosion in PHP weather-related programming.

Special Thanks to Mike Challis at Long Beach WA for his wind-rose generator, Theme Switcher and CSS styling help with these templates. Also Mike made many other scripts like the (Who's Online), the (Contact Us), the (Space Weather) and the wxhistory script.

Special Thanks to Brian Hamliton, author of Weather Display, to Julian, author of Weather Display Live and
to Tom Ehrensperger, author of WxSim and WxSimate, for there excellent support at Weather Watch Forum.

Special Thanks to Chris, administrator of Weather Watch Forum.

Special Thanks to Jim McMurry at jcweather.us for the YoWindow-xml, the NSLog program, the nslmap, the WU-History and the mobile-version scripts,
to Rainer Finkeldeh at www.bashewa.com for the Cloud-Base script,
to Luis Gil at meteo.aerolugo.com for the Thermogram & Climograph scripts,
to Stuart Rogers at stella-maris.org.uk for the WXgraphs scripts,
to Timothy Hanko at thanko.info for the WXgraphs setup,
to curly at weather.ricksturf.com for the Record Breaking Weather Alert script,
to Rob Braiden at wellingtonweatheruk.com for the WxSim Hourly Forecast script,
to sloweather at wx.sloweather.com for the Chandler Burning index script,
to Henkka at nordicweather.net for the Yr.No's Forecast, the wxsim3in1 and the NSDisplay scripts,
to Pavel Repkin at yowindow.com for the YoWindow application,
to Radomir Luza at pocasi.hovnet.cz for the WU-Graphs
to Sietse Visser at sietse.nl for the iwdl web application
and to all weather amateurs around the world who are helping eatch other with no second thought.

Special Thanks to Thanos Tsioukanaras at meteothes.gr for the basic translation in Greek and his help in many technical issues
and to Thomas Georgiou at metar.gr for his help with the SeqDownload application and the IPcam control. Also for the modified satellite image from Sat24, which was accommodated for some time here.

At last but not at least, Special Thanks to all of You who are watching Vouhead Weather and contact me for informations or suggestions!
You give me the power to go on, trying to keep this weather site interesting and making it better!

Vouhead Weather Status

At the home page dashboard, the station status is briefly presented as Bucephalus health in 10 stages. Above the image is the check time and the score from 1 to 10 of 10 (e.g. 7-10). (10-10) is the best. 0 to 20 seconds In good health ! 20 seconds to 1 minute He is unwell !! 1 minute to 5 minutes He has a serious cold !!! If the problem persists after 5 minutes, at the 10th stage, there is the last alert with flashing image and audible message, telling You to come to this page (Vouhead Weather Status) where You can see if the problem affects Your correct information. It is possible that the status from some components will be red in this page, but the briefly presentation still looks OK. That's because the time limits in this page are strictly the expected from the settings and not the proper functioning limits. After 5 minutes Getting worse !!!! The audible message Hear the message When paused Yes, he sleeps !!!!! Also, in the right of the image, there is a button which controls pause and start of station status. Usefull when Bucephalus gets annoying with his serious cold and starts sneezing and coughing! Stations battery status: Console battery voltage: Current reception: Data received: Total packets received: Total packets missed: Number of resynchronizations*: Packets in a row, that were received: Number of CRC errors**:  Ok!  3.6 volt  Ok! 98% 179222 7632 141 0 826 117 *Happens after 20 consecutive bad packets  **Refers to rejected packets Weather Display version number: Weather Display Build number: Date WD was started: Time WD was started: 10.37S 90 11-16-2024 3:44:46 PM Component Status Age Limit Updated Weather Display -------- Realtime 0:00:09 (0:00:15) 21/11 - 11:44 Weather Display -------------- FTP 0:04:15 (0:05:15) 21/11 - 11:40 Weather Display -- Weather Data 0:04:27 (0:05:15) 21/11 - 11:40 WXSIM ------------------- Forecast 2:44:27 (6:30:15) 21/11 - 09:00 WXSIM ----------- Retrieved Data 2:14:08 (6:00:15) 21/11 - 09:30 WXSIM ------------- Detailed Data 2:14:09 (6:00:15) 21/11 - 09:30 Nexstorm ---------- Lightning Map 0:00:36 (0:01:15) 21/11 - 11:43 NSLog --------------- Realtime File 0:00:10 (0:00:15) 21/11 - 11:44 NSLog ----------------- Strikes File 0:02:01 (0:01:15) 21/11 - 11:42 NSLog ------------------ Graph File 0:00:22 (0:01:15) 21/11 - 11:44 NSLog ----------------- Storms File 0:04:31 (0:01:15) 21/11 - 11:39 UPSilon ------------------ Data File 3388:50:30 (0:15:15) 03/07 - 07:53 UPSilon ----------------- Event File 3388:51:08 (0:15:15) 03/07 - 07:53 QCNLive --------------- 10 min File 0:02:09 (0:10:15) 21/11 - 11:42 QCNLive ------------------ 1 hr File 0:02:00 (0:10:15) 21/11 - 11:42 IP Cam ------ 15 min Image File* 0:00:10 (0:00:15) 21/11 - 11:44 IP Cam ----------- 1 hr Image File 0:00:19 (0:01:15) 21/11 - 11:44 IP Cam --------- 1 day Image File 0:04:18 (0:05:15) 21/11 - 11:40 Mobile -------------------- Data File 0:04:16 (0:05:15) 21/11 - 11:40 Records ------------------ Data File 11:47:19 (24:00:15) 20/11 - 23:57 *During the Time-Lapse creation, the Limit goes up from (0:00:15) to (0:02:15) The wether-PC started before: Free memory on the wether-PC: 4 days and 20 hours 5.56GB UPS Status: UPS Input Voltage: UPS Frequency: UPS Output Voltage: UPS Battery Charge: UPS Load: UPS Status Recorded at:   Stand by 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 100 % 0.0 % 07:38:06 Last 15 UPS Events Nr. Date Time Event 1 14-04- 2024 09:00:21 AM AC Power Failure 2 14-04- 2024 08:13:02 AM AC Power Failure 3 13-03- 2024 05:02:55 PM AC Power Restored 4 13-03- 2024 05:02:49 PM AC Power Failure 5 12-02- 2024 02:27:21 AM AC Power Restored 6 12-02- 2024 02:27:15 AM AC Power Failure 7 21-12- 2023 09:10:09 AM AC Power Restored 8 21-12- 2023 08:51:04 AM AC Power Failure 9 21-12- 2023 08:50:46 AM AC Power Restored 10 21-12- 2023 08:38:04 AM AC Power Failure 11 23-10- 2023 07:00:56 PM AC Power Restored 12 23-10- 2023 07:00:52 PM AC Power Failure 13 14-10- 2023 08:51:31 PM AC Power Restored 14 14-10- 2023 08:51:15 PM AC Power Failure 15 14-10- 2023 07:58:41 PM AC Power Restored Last Hour UPS Status Time Input Voltage Frequency Output Voltage Bat. Charge Load 07:38:06 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:37:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:37:06 226.0 volt 50.0 Hz 226.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:36:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:36:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:35:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:35:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:34:36 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:34:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:33:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:33:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:32:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:32:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:31:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:31:06 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:30:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:30:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:29:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:29:06 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:28:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:28:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:27:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:27:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:26:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:26:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:25:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:25:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:24:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:24:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:23:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:23:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:22:36 226.0 volt 50.0 Hz 226.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:22:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:21:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:21:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:20:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:20:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:19:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:19:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:18:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:18:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:17:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:17:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:16:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:16:06 226.0 volt 50.2 Hz 226.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:15:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:15:06 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:14:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:14:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:13:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:13:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:12:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:12:06 226.0 volt 50.2 Hz 226.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:11:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:11:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:10:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:10:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:09:36 226.0 volt 50.0 Hz 226.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:09:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:08:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:08:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:07:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:07:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:06:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:06:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:05:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:05:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:04:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:04:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:03:36 226.0 volt 50.0 Hz 226.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:03:06 234.0 volt 50.2 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:02:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:02:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:01:36 234.0 volt 50.2 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:01:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:00:36 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 07:00:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:59:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:59:06 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:58:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:58:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:57:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:57:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:56:36 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:56:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:55:36 229.0 volt 50.2 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:55:06 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:54:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:54:06 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:53:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:53:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:52:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:52:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:51:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:51:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:50:36 229.0 volt 50.0 Hz 229.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:50:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:49:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:49:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:48:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:48:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:47:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:47:06 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:46:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:46:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:45:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:45:06 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:44:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:44:06 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:43:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:43:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:42:36 231.0 volt 50.0 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:42:06 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:41:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:41:06 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:40:36 234.0 volt 50.0 Hz 234.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:40:06 231.0 volt 50.2 Hz 231.0 volt 0.0 % 100 % 06:39:36 231.0 volt 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