Powdermill Nature Reserve

Weather Recording

Since 1960, the staff at Powdermill had been manually taking weather observations seven days a week as a cooperator for the National Weather Service. As part of an ongoing effort to collect more scientifically valuable data for research on Powdermill, we wanted to get weather data on a much more frequent basis than once a day, and furthermore, to collect it automatically (no more coming in to take weather data at 8 a.m. on your day off!). So, they decided to go automatic and bought a wireless Vantage Pro 2 Plus.

Not only does the new system provide basic temperature and rainfall weather data as the old system did, it now provides humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, dew point, solar energy, solar radiation, UV, and soil moisture and temperature. The data are saved locally every minute on a computer and will eventually be part of an entire weather network to monitor air, soil, and water conditions Reserve-wide. It is also uploaded every 2.5 seconds online to Weather Underground, maintaining the real-time display of current conditions that you see in the rainbow "badge" on this page.

Check it out for yourself!