Zambretti Forecaster

I’d love to give it a try! Please fire it off my way and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Thanks to Bob for sending me his application with the source.

I have ported it to Perl, here is for everyone use:

http://www.casacota.cat/2x2/predictor.pl

Source code:

http://www.casacota.cat/teranyina?num=1190138447

An old “forecaster” is this Spanish monk:

http://www.surnames.org/aladin/frare.html

It is made with intestine fiber that reacts to humidity and (it is said) to pressure variations.

This monk in original version is rather inaccurate and unusable, but I did modify and adapt the Zambretti algorithm, plus some other data such as temperature, humidity and the boltek sensor, and made it work this way - sorry it is in Catalan:

http://frater.casacota.cat

Here’s another disc type weather forecaster, the Sager Weathercaster. Pic below courtesy of Brooke Clarke, more details (and a lot of other interesting stuff) on his weather page.


I just found a Sager Weathercaster for sale on eBay for $9.99 (compared to $49 and $125 that others want for them). Don’t look for one at $9.99 now though…it’s sold…to me :wink:

Well, that’s a deal, the best I saw was $35 on Alibris which exceeded the value of my curiosity :lol:

Thanks for bringing these back to my attention. I had forgotten all about them. Are you going to give us a forcast comparison when it arrives. :slight_smile:

and who will start with an electronic version? I like to help.

regards,

gerard

My wife is addicted to yard sales and thrift stores. She has a standing order from me to buy anything related to weather that costs a few bucks or so. Today when I got home she said she found a weather book that had a marked price of $1.50 and it was 1/2 price day. It turned out to be a Sager Weathercaster, in it’s original box and appears almost new except you can tell the paper is old. :smiley:

Did a quick forecast and it compared pretty close to WXSIM. Both are calling for rain and winds from the North - Northeast. The biggest difference being it’s calling for strong winds (25-38 mph) while WXSIM is calling for around 11 mph.

–Dave

That’s a stroke of luck and quite a coincidence too 8O

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Maybe I’ll play the forecast numbers for the Lotto. She said it was with a bunch of old books in one box. Not long ago she found one of the Weather Channel or USA books and a very nice lab type thermometer. I had to stop her from bringing home remote temp sensors but I am hoping for a VP2 next. :slight_smile:

–Dave

Has it arrived yet ? :slight_smile:

I bought one for $ 30 and it arrived in the Netherlands. Interesting how somebody made this and to be honest it works great. I was thinking about some WD tags, so we can make it working with WD.

but for this moment no time for this project.

regards,

gerard

It has. I tried it when it arrived but as we were in very stable conditions at the time forecasting was a bit boring/easy. I’ll dig it out and have another try now that things are changing.

The stable conditions finished here yesterday when a front moved across, blasted the trees for 20 minutes, and good to see some rain at last. But would have preferred to have the rain spread across a few hours. 8O

I am going to get a Zambretti Forcaster just for fun. I will keep a look out for a Sager.

doornenburgweer glad to see you are having fun with yours. Good to get away from a computer screen occasionally.

I just bought a 1954 Guest Weathercaster on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280133861265

It looks to be about the same as the Sager Weathercaster.

Steve

Here is an original one, in silver, from 1927, on eBay, while the listing is still accessible:

NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA SILVER Pocket Forecaster BAROMETER
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310049039281

Steve

Thanks! I’ll try…

Finally I could not buy it… too expensive.

But I did make a script to make appear the Zambretti Forecast as icon in WDL:

http://wx.casacota.cat