VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

The first of a several (hopefully) weather stations was installed at Columbia Beach today. Special thanks to Ron for letting us use his house and for all of his help and generosity . And thanks to Mattdog and Brian for helping in the installation and to Bosun's Locker for giving me a great deal on the gear.

Some info:
- here's the link Columbia WS, and there is a link on the Latest Reports page
- it should update every 5 minutes
- the anemometer may be sheltered a bit on SE winds, we'll have to see how it reads and compares to Ballenas and Sisters. We may have to raise the height of the sensor.
- there is no rain gauge so that's why it reports 0mm of rain
- don't believe the humidity value or the Curr Weather: Dry tag (I'll try to get this removed)
- the Local conditions picture (clear, cloudy, raining) comes from the Nanaimo airport station so it may not be accurate for this site
- I'll try to get the info added as one line on the Latest Reports table
- Ron is doing some electrical work at his house so webcam and weather data may be interupted over the next few days.

Comments, questions? As always, if you can spare some $ to help pay for all of this that would be cool. I'd like to put more of these up, maybe at IV and Gordon's.
Enjoy,
dave

this site puts everything else to shame

Wow - thanks for your tireless energy Dave - this new addition really rocks. What's the technology behind it? did you figure out a way to gateway the weather sensor thru the camera, or maybe another PC to pull in the data?

Dave,

could you please give a quick lesson on how to use the barometric pressure reading to predict the wind? Should we compare it to other sites?

Are you going to substitute in the RH from another weather site ?

Thanks

Too Cool, ALL INVOLVED!! Man, that's awesome! The record high of 7 degrees is gonna slow things down a bit for a while on the enthusiasm side, can you do something about them temps, Dave, maybe crank'em up a tad?

NICE WORK AND SPECIAL THANKS TO THE HOST!!

~ pimp hand ~ wrote:this site puts everthing else to shame

Thanks Pimp Hand!

morewind wrote:What's the technology behind it? did you figure out a way to gateway the weather sensor thru the camera?

Nope gave up on the cam idea. It would have been cool to get the webcam to poll and upload the data but I gave up trying. I bought a cheapo 500mhz machine to upload the weather station data using the program weather-display. Maybe I/we can look into the webcam method at some point - a good project for the future!

Mattdog wrote:could you please give a quick lesson on how to use the barometric pressure reading to predict the wind? Should we compare it to other sites? Are you going to substitute in the RH from another weather site ?

I adjusted the pressure to read close to the pressure at Ballenas. From "The wind cam all ways" book, The peak south-east winds (at Sisters/Cape Lazo) are ~= 10x the pressure slope, so look for a change of 2-3 mb over 60 nautical miles. Also you can use the pressure change over 3hrs estimate:
<1.5 mb = lame
1.5-2.4 mb = small craft advisory
2.4-5.9 mb = gale force winds likely
> 6mb = storm force winds

I think the RH is from Nanaimo airport, I'll try and get it to read it from Ballenas...

KUS wrote:can you do something about them temps, Dave, maybe crank'em up a tad?

Yeah the temps will be depressing, esp the wind chill temp!

Thanks Dave!

Weather station page looks cool, like space ship dashboard! (not like I've seen one)

Thanks man

I found this definition of apparent temperature below. In our humid climate, it feels cooler than true air temperature in the winter. That added to wind chill is even worse! In practicality I guess wind chill and apparent temperature only affect our exposed bits like face and hands while dressed in wind proof clothing.

The apparent temperature is a measure of relative discomfort due to combined heat and high humidity. It was developed by R.G. Steadman (1979) and is based on physiological studies of evaporative skin cooling for various combinations of ambient temperature and humidity. The apparent temperature equals the actual air temperature when the dew-point temperature is 57.2°F (14°C). At higher dew-points, the apparent temperature exceeds the actual temperature and measures the increased physiological heat stress and discomfort associated with higher than comfortable humidities. When the dew-point is less than 57.2°F, on the other hand, the apparent temperature is less than the actual air temperature and measures the reduced stress and increased comfort associated with lower humidities and greater evaporative skin cooling.

Apparent temperatures greater than 80°F are generally associated with some discomfort. Values approaching or exceeding 105°F are considered life-threatening, with severe heat exhaustion or heatstroke possible if exposure is prolonged or physical activity high. The degree of heat stress may vary with age, health, and body characteristics.

... And here's the formula for wind chill for any weather geeks ....

The wind chill is a measure of the cooling effect of the wind on exposed skin.

The formula to compute Wind Chill is as follows:
Wind chill temperature = 35.74 + 0.6215T - 35.75V (**0.16) + 0.4275TV(**0.16)

Where V is in the wind speed in statute miles per hour, and T is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

Um... I was told that there would be no math...



Thanks Dave and Dave's minions! Maybe Ron could just crank the heat up in his house and open the porch doors to warm things up a bit for us.

once again BWD your dedication and enthusiasim for all us wind junkies is awsome! I agree 100% with pimphand, this site rocks!!

Serious sensory overload...<b>Excellent!!</b>...Jim..

Oops that Guest was me

Hey Mattdogg-dude, that was pretty good weather-geek-speak. Can you help me with my homework..?? HA, just joking!! .... BWD and other windlovers....NICE WORK!!

Wind Chill and Apparent Temp are listed on the table, so no need for calculations. I didn't know what apparent temperature (also known as "humidex" out east) was so thought I would fling out the definitions for interest sake.