Temperature and rainfall in Julian in 2024

 My La Crosse weather station measures temperature in different locations, rainfall, wind etc. The measurements are made 24/7, with some occasional down times, every 5 minutes or so and then dumped into a database. Each set of data had about 6000 data points.Today, on the 31st of December, I queried the data and here is what I have learned after doing some math. 

1. Temperatures outdoors

Global time-averaged temperature in Julian was calculated as: 

Here Delta t is the longevity in time of a certain temperature during the day,  normally in 5 minute time intervals,  at which the measurements were coming through. The averaging was done by time, to understand the cumulative effects of the temperature on the plant growth. 

After all this effort, the 'global time-averaged temperature'  came out to be  58.7 F. 

The literature data   from the Western Regional Weather Center quote average maximum and average minimum temperatures in Julian from 1981 to 2010, see below. 

Julian 1981-2010 Monthly Climate Summary, Western Regional Weather Center

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
Average Max. Temperature (F)	57.7	60.2	62.1	68.6	76.2	85.4	91.5	91.4	84.2	72.9	60.9	57.3	72.6
Average Min. Temperature (F)	36.8	37.0	36.9	39.7	43.3	48.4	54.6	56.4	52.1	45.8	38.5	36.4	43.9
Average Total Precipitation (in.)	3.41	4.19	4.79	2.04	0.57	0.16	0.51	1.47	1.03	1.73	3.87	4.00	27.75

 The average maximum temperature is defined as   the average of daily maximum temperatures measured over the month. Similarly, the average minimum temperature  is an average of daily minimum temperatures. The annual  data are the average of the monthly averages. The midpoint between the annual average max and min  came to  58.25 F,  which  is similar to our time-averaged value of 58.7F; these values do not need to be the same (as the process of averaging is different) but the fact that they are close is a good sign.

In terms of the temperature extremes, the global maximum was 114.3F,  the global minimum was 25 F. As expected, they are more extreme than the 'smoothened' monthly averaged values shown above in the Western Report,  which were 91.5 F (July) and 36.4 F (December).

2. Chilling hours and Winkler Index

      Chilling is required for the fruit trees to  develop leaves and fruit. There are multiple ways to determine those hours and I chose the simplest one. I just integrated the total time during the year when the temperature outside  was below 45 F.  The outcome was 1710 hours, which was more than 1000 hours required for most varieties of apples and pears.

      Winkler Index is the metrics used to characterize if the climate is suitable for growing grapes, and is used to determine which varieties of grapes will do well in a given climate. By definition, Winkler Index is measured as the sum  of days of the year with the average temperature above 50 F, multiplied by the average temperature excess over 50 F, measured on that day. (The units of Winkler Index are therefore days*degrees F). The summation is done   only from April the 1st through September the 30th; the other days are excluded as not relevant for growing grapes; similarly, if the average temperature falls  below 50 F, those days are excluded as well (i.e., there is no negative contribution to the index). The outcome was 3487, which is comparable to Ramona (3470)  and Escondido (3510). It corresponds to Region 3 of the Winkler Index, and lies on the higher end of it.

Footnote: My calculation did not do the daily averaging; that is, every time the temperature was above 50 F, the Winkler  Index was incremented, even if it happened for a fraction of a day. That is,  if there was a day with the low temperature at night , the daily average may be below 50 and this day would normally be excluded  from the summation (?). Perhaps I need to correct for it, to be more inline with the normal process. 

Footnote to Footnote: after this correction,  Winkler Index came to 3287,  Which is still Region 3, but  mid-range (close to the one of Poway). It is not very clear to me, why Poway's index is lower than the one of Ramona and Escondido-- I would think it is the other way around.

3. Temperature in the greenhouse

Global time-averaged temperature in Julian greenhouse was 66.8 F. Global maximum was 127F,  the global minimum was 29.8 F. Note that the vents were installed in February which caused some drop in T. The first two months of data therefore were queried without the vents, so the data may be somewhat an overestimate as the vents is the default mode of use.   The vents were designed to open at about 20 C (68 F) internal temperature, and close back when the temperature drops. One can see that they did the job to a degree to keep the temperature constant,  up to May. In June-December, the spikes to 100 F became common. September was the hottest month with spikes up to 120 F in the greenhouse.

To summirize, the average T in the greenhouse was higher by 8.1 F than outdoors. The maximum was higher by 12.7F. The minimum was higher by 4.8F.

Chilling hours in the greenhouse were reduced to 730 hours.  It may be still sufficient for some plants.

4. Temperature in the yurt

Temperatures in the yurt were in between those of the Greenhouse and the outside probe.  The table below compares averages, maxima and minima of the temperatures between these three locations.

Temperature                    Average                    Maximum                Minimum           Chilling hours

Outdoors                            58.7                            114.3                        25                    1700

Greenhouse                        66.8                            127                           29.8                  730

Yurt                                    63.0                            107.8                        28                        n/a

5. Rainfall

Whereas the temperature data are quite robust, it is not quite clear how good is the rain sensor, and if the precipitation data as collected are correct. The sensor was never calibrated. Also, by design,  the water that comes as  the snow/hail mostly remains unmeasured by the probe, as it  may just slide off the surface of the probe without melting and remain undetected.

The bottomline is, only 12.51 inches of rain was detected in Julian in 2024.  It is slightly less than half of the historic average of 27.75 inches shown in the Western report.  It indicates a very dry year, and is in agreement with the observations of our neighbors.

 To further validate it,  another tidbit of information is the rainfall measurements made by the same probe from April 2022 to  February of 2023. The data is available only about 10 months total, excluding the potentially rainy days of February-March.  The total rainfall  came to 25 inches, in line with the 

historic average.  It may indicate that the probe is fully functional, and the 2X lower rainfall is real.

6. Wind

Visiting HP Corvallis in my dream again

 As many other HP employees, I often have repeating  dreams of coming back to HP as a  guest, being rehired at HP, being laid-off, etc. I described some of them already. The most recent one was a bit strange. I remember being at the site in HP Corvallis- but it seems I had gotten there not as an employee  but as a guest- or maybe just sneaked in somehow through the security gate.  Then I felt that it was the time to leave -  as I was on the site illegally or at least half legally.  I remember being at the security gate of some kind, but there was a crowd of people there already, all trying to get out!  Also the situation became unruly, and I was squeezed between the bodies of other people, mostly latinos and middle eastern folks. Here the dream ended.

Scientific and engineering dreams

 As a former scientist/engineer,  I often have dreams with scientific or engineering ideas in them. Often they are formatted as me making a scientific presentation of some kind.  Frustratingly, when I wake up, none of these ideas are new; they are  all repeats of my old thoughts from the past time.

Bike ride

 On the 4th of July, I had a 44 miles bike ride, with the average moving speed of 12.0 miles per hour. I am on the way to recovery, proud of my accomplishment

Restoration of Printers. 2. HP Designjet 130

 

This is a much larger printer, which can print on media up to 24 inches wide. It is a 6-ink dye-based system (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Light Cyan Light Magenta-Photo Black). The printer has 6  printheads and 6 separate off-axis ink supplies. The printer was a success when it came out in 2006, and did get many positive reviews. I was not directly working on the ink development for it, but was indirectly involved. When released, the printer sold at about $1300. The printer is bulky and heavy, but the paper path is well designed. It produces good quality prints on photo and DFA media.

After  2006, HP moved away from dye-based systems to pigments; accordingly there was no follow-up product to Designjet 130. I do not know when exactly the printer manufacturing was discontinued by HP ; I am guessing about 2010. The existing printer  base is still  supported by HP but the support is minimal. The drivers are outdated; thus, there is no current driver for Mac. I was having difficulty to print on this printer via Photoshop and Windows 11. 

In 2020, HP still sold the printheads and ink supplies for DJ130, but they were very expensive --- do not remember the prices now, about $100 apiece, so that the complete new set (6+6) was about $1000. As of now, in February 2024,  the supplies are available only through refillers; HP no longer sells them.

I bought this printer second hand in 2020, 4 years ago. It belonged to a local art professor and was not in a working condition, as the  printhead assembly carriage broke. That caused the whole system to stall and the inks in the printheads to dry up.  After buying second hand (original HP) printheads and second hand (original HP) ink supplies via  Ebay and cleaning up the ink lines I was able to make the printer to work. 

 The main challenge was and still is,  the Photoshop compatibility, but I found some ridiculous hack with  Microsoft Paint Software, which somehow supported the existing printer driver. This way I successfully printed about 20 large format prints, with a good quality.

The most recent issue was, the printer lost the power! I am assuming the power supply is now broken, and I have ordered a replacement (second hand, coming via  E-Bay from China).  I perhaps will need to put it to rest, if the power supply replacement will not fix the issue.

Update 2-19-2024: replacing the power supply fixed the issue... It took some effort to locate the power supply in the printer and to take it out.  Now more printheads are ordered via ebay as the light magenta and black do not print well  as the colateral damage.

Restoration of Printers. Part 1. Canon Pixma Pro-100

 

I have gotten this printer second-hand at the local NextDoor website. The person who sold it never had used it; it was in the original packaging box sitting inside a shipping  box, with the name and the address of the original owner still on it. Perhaps,  the printer was sent as a sample to an 'influencer' with the  intent to get some kind  of a review or a feedback. The printer was stored in a garage  for about 5 years (this is the number that floats in my memory; perhaps it is based on the shipping dates as seen on the package).

It is a medium-high-end, dye-based, 8-ink printer and can print on up to 13x19'' (A3+) media.  It has a permanent printhead and replaceable ink supplies. It also has many other features such as wireless and ethernet connection; it may even have a DVD drive, which I never used. The print media can be fed  into the printer in three possible ways,  with two trays in front and one in the back. The tray in the back allows to feed a very  thick digital fine arts media stock.

As of today (February 2024), Canon Pixma Pro-100   is still manufactured and fully supported by Canon ($950 at Amazon). This is impressive as the original release date of the printer is September 2012. The set of 8 ink supplies (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow -Light cyan -Light magenta -Light gray -Medium Gray- Photo BlacK) can be bought for about $100. It also has a Photoshop Plug-in  so the printer driver is fully integrated with Adobe Photoshop. The Plug-in is available for download from Canon website for free.

In my particular case, despite the prolonged storage time, the printer started smoothly, right out the box; all the nozzles were present. Because the ink set was dye-based, and the ink supplies were stored outside of the printhead, there were no storage related  issues, typical for pigment based inks. I found the output of the printer excellent and am currently on the third set of the ink supplies. After 3 years of ownership,  I printed  about fifty  13x19 prints, both color and black-and white; I  also printed on Canon Photo and Digital Fine Arts media, readily available through Amazon. Because the ink set contains  2  gray inks, the B/W output was excellent. As of today (February 2024), my printer is fully operational.

A good comparison to this product would be the HP Deskjet 8750 9-ink printer, which is also dye-based and supported up to 13''x19'' media size; I worked on it during my time at HP. The printer was released in 2005, 7 years prior to Pixma 100,  and the output of that printer was very comparable to Canon. However, it was essentially an HP Deskjet printer on steroids; it had the same printer engine and the printheads as the rest of the Deskjet family. The main issue was  the difficulty to feed the digital fine art media through it, as the thick media was easily stuck. Also the printheads and  the amount of inks per printhead were too small for the large format printing. The user could get out of ink in the middle of a printing job. I do not recall the exact number but perhaps the printheads needed to be replaced after 10  13x19 pages printed.

As of today, HP Deskjet 8750 is discontinued. The printheads for it (HP94, HP100) are also no longer  manufactured, so those people who still own this printer cannot use it. Here goes the mantra of HP taking care of its customers and having the customers at the center of its business.

It is also perhaps worth mentioning that HP Personal Photo Printing Division, which was once lead by VJ  (Viomesh Joshi )  and produced Deskjet 8750 had been disbanded in about 2007. VJ himself however was not badly affected as he led the whole HP Personal Printing and Computer Division at some point. As of today, he is no longer with HP and currently leads 3D Systems Company in San Diego.

The HP Photo Printing Division was let go because HP could not sell enough of photo printers to be profitable. At that time, people started to print less, as the personal handheld devices came in. Perhaps there was a room for 1 or maybe 2 photo printing companies and Canon and Epson won this competition.

I want to mention that HP always have made a big deal of the photo permanence of their printing output. Thus, Deskjet 8750 was boasting producing 70 years+ lasting photos! Interestingly, the printer itself did not last that long and faded away after about 5 years of existence. So did the engineers and managers of all levels working on it.  So did the printheads that went into this printer. 

Where did our Deskjet 8750 printers go, the printers of which we were so proud and happy?  Alas, they are all in the landfill, not bringing happiness to people and polluting the planet.

I hope some of the  prints are still around, 19 years after; forget the 70+ years. The current attitudes have changed as well, as the hard copies are now considered disposable (generated as needed) , whereas the digital content is becoming more of a permanent asset. So - if very few Deskjet 8750 prints exist as of today, I will not be surprised.

On a positive note, I am under impression that the design of Pixma Pro-100 was affected by HP 8750 so our effort was not completely lost, and is kept alive by this Canon product. Having Gray inks in the ink set stabilizes neutral color axis and is overall beneficial for the color accuracy. Also, the printer success showed that dye based inks have room in photo imaging (more about it later).

How does the success look like for Ukraine, Russia, USA, and other parties

 As the war shows no end to it,  I am thinking through these questions. Neither Ukraine or Russia are capable to win the war.  

United States, and in particular CIA have already won this war and want it to continue. Russia and Ukraine are bleeding themselves, if not to death, then to a very bad economical, political, social, cultural, and moral state.  The bleeding is continuous and there no visible end to it.  Meanwhile Russia continues to sell oil, gas, wheat through the third parties and the economy of USA is not really affected; oil and gas markets are stable; USA may have gotten some economical benefits from this economical reshuffle, I do not know. 

Corrupt  oligarchies of Russia and Ukraine have won this war.  As the corruption is rampant in Russia and Ukraine, a lot of war money may get into wrong hands during the war. Perhaps these people  are interested in the permanent war as well.  

 Both Zelensky and Putin get some benefits from the war. Zelensky  enjoys his international celebrity status. Putin becomes  the only possible leader of Russia for many years to come.

Europe starts to realize perhaps that they are negatively affected (the flow of refugees, expense of joining NATO for Sweden and Finland, broken economical ties with Russia  that have to be replaced).  Direct neighbors of Ukraine (Poland, Hungary) are affected and I am expecting the relationship between them  and Ukraine to worsen.

I am wondering where did the good will of Europe and United States go. They passively support Ukraine, to the level that it can not be overrun by Russia but not more than that.  Perhaps it is clear that Ukraine cannot win in any case, without a major international military conflict in which the superpowers are not willing to be engaged in.  This means a lengthy 'dirty' war in the middle of Europe, from which Europe does not benefit, but perhaps US does.