diff --git a/src/water_scraper_v3.py b/src/water_scraper_v3.py
index 21b5b52..6f3f5ee 100644
--- a/src/water_scraper_v3.py
+++ b/src/water_scraper_v3.py
@@ -500,11 +500,12 @@ class EnhancedWaterMonitorScraper:
             return []
     
     def _check_data_freshness(self, water_data: List[Dict]) -> bool:
-        """Check if the fetched data contains recent/fresh timestamps"""
+        """Check if the fetched data contains expected current hour data"""
         if not water_data:
             return False
 
         current_time = datetime.datetime.now()
+        current_hour = current_time.hour
 
         # Find the most recent timestamp in the data
         latest_timestamp = None
@@ -517,19 +518,37 @@ class EnhancedWaterMonitorScraper:
             logger.warning("No valid timestamps found in data")
             return False
 
-        # Check if the latest data is within the last 2 hours
+        latest_hour = latest_timestamp.hour
         time_diff = current_time - latest_timestamp
         hours_old = time_diff.total_seconds() / 3600
 
-        logger.info(f"Latest data timestamp: {latest_timestamp}, age: {hours_old:.1f} hours")
+        logger.info(f"Current time: {current_time.strftime('%H:%M')}, Latest data: {latest_timestamp.strftime('%H:%M')}")
+        logger.info(f"Current hour: {current_hour}, Latest data hour: {latest_hour}, Age: {hours_old:.1f} hours")
 
-        # Consider data fresh if it's less than 2 hours old
-        is_fresh = hours_old <= 2.0
+        # Check if we have data for the current hour or the previous hour
+        # If it's 20:00 and we only have data up to 19:xx, that's stale
+        expected_hour = current_hour
+        has_current_hour = latest_hour >= expected_hour
+
+        # Allow some tolerance: if it's early in the hour (first 10 minutes),
+        # accept data from the previous hour
+        if current_time.minute <= 10 and latest_hour == (current_hour - 1):
+            has_current_hour = True
+            logger.info(f"Early in hour {current_hour}, accepting previous hour {latest_hour} data")
+
+        # Also check that data isn't too old (backup check)
+        not_too_old = hours_old <= 2.0
+
+        is_fresh = has_current_hour and not_too_old
 
         if not is_fresh:
-            logger.warning(f"Data is stale ({hours_old:.1f} hours old), switching to retry mode")
+            if not has_current_hour:
+                logger.warning(f"Missing current hour data - expected hour {expected_hour}, got {latest_hour}")
+            if not not_too_old:
+                logger.warning(f"Data is too old ({hours_old:.1f} hours)")
+            logger.warning("Data is stale, switching to retry mode")
         else:
-            logger.info(f"Data is fresh ({hours_old:.1f} hours old)")
+            logger.info(f"Data is fresh - has current/recent hour data")
 
         return is_fresh