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A Cumulus Daily Graph Set as a Figure Plate

A Cumulus daily graph set of temperature, dewpoint, pressure, wind, and rain as one figure plate—not a JPGraph project and not a login gate.

Back to Historical weather observations and forecasts

A Cumulus graph set is a daily figure plate: several standard variables drawn for the same recent window, usually the last 24 hours or the current calendar day, and published as one page. The usual core is air temperature, dewpoint, pressure, wind, and rain. The plate is how a visitor sees the day’s shape without opening the logger. It is not a plotting-library project, not a login screen, and not a second, longer collection of extra sensors.

The historical URL /graphs on cumulus.tnetweather.com was that plate. The original images and scripts are not rehosted. This article is a reading guide for the standard daily set. How to plot with JPGraph as a library is /projects/jpgraphgraphs. Why a gallery was login-gated is /graphs&action=login. The second collection—longer period, extra sensors, wind rose—is /graphs2.

Historical context

Cumulus can show charts in its own interface and, depending on flavour and era, can upload images or later JSON for a default website. Community sites still wanted a public page named /graphs that held the day’s traces in a familiar order. Incoming links meant that page: today’s weather as figures, not as a needle and not as a ZIP of PHP.

The scientific object is the set. Temperature without dewpoint hides moisture. Pressure without wind hides whether a fall had a gradient. Rain without temperature hides whether a wet hour was a burst or a long drizzle. A plate puts those series on one scroll with a shared idea of “today,” even when each panel keeps its own y-axis.

What belongs on the daily plate

Five families earn a place because they are the station’s standard atmosphere, not optional extras:

Temperature. Outdoor air, with a stated unit. Indoor air, if present, is a second experiment and needs its own trace or a clear caption. A single temperature chart is the close reading of this one line; the plate only needs the day’s min, max, and shape next to the other instruments.

Dewpoint. Dewpoint is the moisture variable that belongs beside temperature. Relative humidity can substitute on a plate if dewpoint is missing, but RH is not dewpoint. A falling temperature with a steady dewpoint is not the same day as both falling together. Derived indexes (heat index, wind chill, humidex) are optional insets, not replacements for dewpoint.

Pressure. Station or sea-level, named, in hPa or inHg. The daily plate shows the day’s path; the gauge dashboard shows the current needle and tendency. Do not omit the unit because “everyone knows inches.”

Wind. Mean and gust as two series, preferably on one speed axis so the gust-above-mean test remains visible. Direction is a third series or a separate panel; it does not belong as an unlabeled overlay on temperature.

Rain. Cumulative depth from the day’s reset, and optionally rate. Cumulative rain must start at zero at the reset. A trace that begins at yesterday’s total is a publishing bug. Intensity spikes are hydrologic grain; they do not need a full rain-detail essay on this page, but they must not be mean-smoothed into a temperature-shaped curve.

Solar, UV, soil, and extra temperatures are not required for this URL. When a site grew those series, it typically opened a second collection rather than stuffing the daily plate until the standard five became unreadable. That is why /graphs2 exists.

One day, several y-axes, one idea of time

The plate works when every panel shares a time window and a timezone. Independent y-scales are expected: temperature and pressure must not share an unlabeled axis. Independent x-scales are not expected. If rain is a calendar day and temperature is a rolling 24 hours, the plate is two products. Label that, or resample both to one window.

Connecting samples with a line is a visual aid. It is not extra data. Gaps stay gaps. A 5-minute logger does not become a continuous physical curve because the PNG is 600 pixels wide.

Cumulus MX graph APIs expose separate JSON series (temperature, wind, rain, pressure, humidity) plus a units object. A daily plate is the human layout of those series, not a substitute for stating units on the canvas. If the station switches from Celsius to Fahrenheit mid-day, that is two experiments. It should not be one polyline.

How to read the plate as one day

Scan in this order, which is not the same as the gauge order because you now have history:

  1. Window and clock. Confirm “today” versus rolling 24 hours.
  2. Temperature and dewpoint together. Diurnal cycle, moisture, and whether they decouple in the afternoon.
  3. Pressure path. Rise, fall, or a step. A step with a gap in samples is an outage, not a front.
  4. Wind mean and gust. Do they track? Does a gust cluster sit on the pressure step?
  5. Rain cumulative and rate. Does the wet interval sit on the wind and dewpoint change, or on a different hour because of a reset?

That scan is observed co-occurrence at one site. It is not an NWS forecast. Official products: weather.gov.

A plate that looks “busy” in Fahrenheit and “quiet” in Celsius has changed tick spacing, not necessarily the air. Read amplitudes in the stated unit.

Distinct from JPGraph, login, and graphs2

/projects/jpgraphgraphs is the figure-contract and library problem: how a PHP pack drew PNGs from a homemade log. This URL assumes figures exist and asks what the standard daily set should contain. You can draw the same plate with Highcharts, GD, or a static PNG dump. The plate is the product; JpGraph is one historical renderer.

/graphs&action=login is access control: hotlinking and scrape load on image scripts. This page is not a gate and has no form.

/graphs2 is the overflow collection: longer windows, extra sensors, wind rose. Keeping /graphs focused on the daily standard five is what made a second URL honest.

A sample graph is not this station’s plate. Do not read a demo file as today’s Mesa (or any) weather.

Practical checklist

  • Five core series present or explicitly absent (no silent drop of dewpoint).
  • Shared time window and timezone; y-axes independent and labeled.
  • Wind mean and gust named; rain cumulative starts at the day’s reset.
  • Dewpoint (or labeled RH) beside temperature; indexes not substituted for moisture.
  • Gaps visible; units on every panel.
  • No login chrome; no claim that JpGraph is required to understand the day.
  • Extra sensors, if any, deferred to /graphs2 or clearly marked as extras.

Modern relevance

A daily plate is still the most compact honest view of a station day: temperature, moisture, mass field, wind, and water. Those are atmospheric evidence families a connection outlook may consider as observations or model fields, not as a scored blend disclosed here. See the evidence families behind a connection outlook. Related Cumulus pages are on the Cumulus hub and the observations hub.

This URL does not stream live graphs. It defines the daily set that /graphs named.

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