You're right Lextra...it's the best weather site on the web! By using the history section at Wunderground.com , I was able to get thousands of $$$'s for my company that Ins. Co. refused to pay. They said weather conditions were not as I had stated & sustained damages could not have resulted from the "small" storm. When I handed their "Senior Adjuster" Wundergrounds pages & pages of daily recorda of temps & snowfall, they cut the check!

At about 5:45 am every day, I go outside in my bathrobe and "check" the weather. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning and I take my umbrella with me when I leave the house at 6:30. Red sky at night, nice sky in the morning, sailor's delight, no umbrella. If it's just a little brisk at 5:45, I wear a sweater or light jacket because it'll warm up by the time I come home and I'll be carrying whatever I've worn. If it's really cold, heavy coat and other gear - yes, I lived in the TC so I also know downright bitter cold. In the winter, I always wear some type of shoe/boot that can withstand snow. In my normal daily routine, as long as I don't get drenched with rain, I don't care too much about what the weather is. I have hairspray at work. If I'm going out of town for some number of days, I google the newspaper of my destination city and check what's going to be happening. Because there's not a darned thing I can do to affect the weather, I don't both too much about it.

Properly installed ducts will not sweat regardless of how humid surrounding air is. One red flag in your discription is "cheap tape was used". Flex duct is best secured with Zip-ties. The linner is normally taped to boot then insulation and outside cover pulled over linner and secured with Zip-tie. If you reconnect ducts to boots,buy the special tensioning tool to pull Zip-ties tight. It sounds like conditioned air is finding it's way out of the spirial wire linner then flowing against outside cover. There might be holes in linner or linner might be disconnected from boots. Another possibility is that duct is simply not well enough insulated.

I get whatever rain gauge I can find, usually plastic, that's in a wedge or cone shape so it's accurate as possible at the lower levels of precip. What's most important is where it's set up, away from buildings, trees, etc. by a surprising distance to prevent funneling or blocking of rain when there's wind, and not overhung by shorter plants while at the same time as sheltered as possible from strong winds that could effect the readings and high enough not to collect splash. It's important that it's level and away from sprinklers. Mine is bottom mounted on a stiff plastic plumbing pipe about 2 1/2' or 3' off the ground in one of my perennial beds, so it is above plants and doesn't collect splash in heavy rain, but many have side mountings so they can be attached to a post or rail. You read the bottom of the curved line of water in the gauge. I also am careful now after one mishap to bring mine in when it might freeze since a cracked rain gauge leaks . . . I live in an area of transitional weather, so it's often pouring just a couple miles south or north of us while we remain dry or visa versa. So I really rely on my rain gauge for accurate info on what we actually received. My area is rural enough that the closest weather station that reports to the web that I know of, at a state highway garage, is about 3 miles away and so doesn't necessarily get the same precip that we do. I am sometimes surprised by what I find in the gauge; our last two rainfalls totalled 1 1/4" but both were after dark and I had no idea that they had brought as much precip as they did until I checked the gauge.