Weather Observation and Forecasting

[dgriffin]

No, I don't know much about it, but I'm hoping that WestMoGuy chimes in here. I just remember being absolutely taken with the Weather as a kid. I had a barometer, wind guage, etc. and would run around the back yard with a yardstick trying to get an average snow depth on Cornhill. My mother would complain when she tripped over my junk on the back porch as she tried to hang the wash. My first shortwave radio kit was always tuned to the aviation weather broadcast from "Idlewild International Airport" in New York City. I may not have known what kind of the weather was about to descend upon Utica, but you could count on me for the temperature and wind conditions at 10,000 feet over Nova Scotia!
(A free lollipop to whoever knows Idlewild's name today. 2 if you can tell me the name of LaGuardia Airport before they named it after their mayor. And 3 if you can tell me how to get to the airport where Lindberg left on his famous transatlantic flight. The hangar is still there, but it's not a hangar any longer. How I came across it is a great story! )

So for all of you who get that special tingle in your ... well, probably your boots ... when heavy weather is on the way, here's a possibly great thread!

[WestmoGuy]

I've been following the weather since I was a kid Dave.
Shoulda been a meteorologist instead of my current profession.

I built my 1st station as a kid. Anyone remember Heath Kits??

Got my 1st real station in 1997. Even measured a 71mph gust at my old house during the Labor Day Storm of 1998. Once we got the new house in 2005 I got a state of the art station and started cnyweather.com

Since then I added a heater for the rain gauge, and a lightning detector last year.

I love being able to provide what the weather is like right now. And almost 90,000 visitors later, I'm happy a lot of people use the site too.

[dgriffin]

I sure do remember Heathkit. I built many of their radio kits. My first "weather kit" was sold by Airguide and I bought it with money from my paper route in 1955 or 56. It had a rainguage (a tube),a thermometer and an aneroid barometer that still sits on my desk and works favorably well. Someone gave me the number of the Oneida County airport control tower and I used to call there all the time as a 12 year old to get the latest pressure so I could set my barometer (I am a bit O.C. ) Finally, the guy told me to only call every 2 months or so!
Couple of years later I had a bigger paper route and bought another kit. This one had a twin bulb hygrometer (parts of which I still have) and a mercurial barometer, (the tube of which eventually broke in a move.) But it also had a rudimentary min/max thermometer.
I wanted to be a meteorologist when I grew up, but that never happened. I had no interest in becoming a TV Meteoroligist, and don't really remember any of the few back then. Instead, I thought it would be really cool to be a Hurrican Hunter and fly into the eye of the storm and ... well, you know.

[Clipper]

A friend of my father's built his first color television from a heathkit. He was an electronic engineer. I don't think it was a project that one would want to undertake on the kitchen table in your spare time, LOL.
It seems to me that there was another company back in the 60's that sold sophisticated electronics in kit form.

As far as the meteorology business. I never had a desire to be a meteorologist, but I HAVE flown into the eye of two different storms. I was fortunate to have a good divorce lawyer save me from destruction in both cases, LOLOL!

[dgriffin]

Allied Radio of Chicago (they're still in business) made the KnightKit line of electronic kits. And Lafayette Radio did the same, I think, although they were less poplular. Heath was definitely the best in quality, in my book. I still have and use a heathkit VFO and two transmitters. Originally made in the 1950's, they're still running strong. I've had over the years lots of Heathkit stuff.

The Heathkit console TV was quite popular when I lived in the Triple Cities area (Binghamton.) Turns out Heathkit offered the TV as an electronics course where the student built and kept the TV. So IBM employees could take the course and get reimbursed for all but the wood cabinet.

[WestmoGuy]

Well, I'm officially a National Weather Service Observer now. The weather records from the old airport were going down the drain with the move to Griffiss, so I get to do all the rainfall and snowfall measurements daily at 7am.

Hope it isnt a bad winter. And I like my automated stuff better so I can sleep in on the weekends

[kim]

Here's my weather observation for today: We've dropped 25 degrees and it's raining.

[dgriffin]

That's great, Westmo. Down here, hams get on the 145 MHz. (2 meters) repeater each morning at 7 a.m. to collect the weather stats from around Ulster Count. When Skywarn is activated, we go direct with a ham at the Weather office up in Albany. With a high enough antenna, we have pretty good signals on that frequency with Albany from here, 45 miles south. I haven't participated much in recent years. For all I know, they're now using the Internet for communications with the NWO in Albany, but the local weather net is still in operation.
I have a friend who is a retired meteorology professor from Rutgers U. He lives up on the mountain nearby and watches the weather come in from there. When something is coming through, we'll IM each other in real time and it's interesting to see the local altitude effects on what we're tracking. Funny story: with his expert background, he has testified at trials in the past about whether "it was icy that night," etc. You or I could do the same, but he is paid for his reputation and academic background. Each year, a music concert promoter pays him to sit on the grounds of the Hunter Music Festival and measure any rain that falls, so that insurance can be collected if the amount of rain is over a certain amount! He says, it's like watching the grass grow, except he's paid for it.

By the way, he wrote a story for More Stories! (The "Jews" of New Mexico) at:
windsweptpress.com/jewnewmex.pdf
It's not about the weather, of course.

[frankcor]

Congrats, WestmoGuy! Let me know when we hit 200 inches in snowfall. I'll call for the plow then.

[WestmoGuy]

Better not get that much.

[frankcor]

If I recall, Griffiss averaged 180 inches per year, while Boonville averages 240. (I live somewhere between them).

One of the interesting features in the new officer's club at Griffiss before it closed was a large column near the end of the bar. They would mark the total accumulated snowfall each year with masking tape on the column. It usually required a step-stool to apply the mark by the end of December each year.

[Clipper]

I remember the column at the "O" club well. I also lived in Point Rock for a while. Believe me, we got more than 200 inches most winters. I remember a christmas day blizzard one year, when my 10 horsepower snowblower was about as effective as trying to empty lake delta with a coffee cup.

[WestmoGuy]

LOL Clipper
Point Rock would be close to Stokes Hill maybe? The hill there gets dumped on.

I was thinking of making some kind of snow gauge for in front of the webcam. Last year I build a snowman with beer can arms for in front of it. Maybe I'll do both HAHA

[wcup102]

Westmoguy,
I use your site to check for snow conditions before i Go out plowing. I have my own business and I check yours and the welchons in New Hartford. They are just of Oneida St. between NH and Wash Mills. Can ya aim more towards the road or ground, that would help LOL!!!!!!

[Clipper]

Yep Westmo guy, I was up the Point Rock Road about 3 miles from West Lee Grocery and only about a quarter mile south of Point Rock itself. I was just about parallel with the top of Stokes hill. I rode my motorcycle to work at the base one day years ago, and got caught in the snow coming home. It was like 45 down in Rome, and when I got to Lee Center it was only in the high thirties, I turned right at the little West Lee Store, and within a half mile, I was dragging my feet in snow, like outriggers to get the bike home on slippery roads, and whiteout conditions. haha.

I was always a die hard biker. I rode on Christmas day a couple of times, and one year we had a magnificent January thaw, and I rode for almost a week with a snowmobile suit and a ski mask under my face piece, haha. My ex wife always thought I was crazy to insure the bikes for the whole year instead of just the warmer months.