WestMoGuy's Weather

[Dave]

Since he checks in here from time to time, I'll take the opportunity to ask WestMo to tell us about how he came to maintain a weather station on the web. And is that frost I see on the grass in your weather camera's view this morning (5/11)?

When I was a kid I kept a primitive weather station, divided between the bedroom shared with brothers and the back porch. I always loved the idea of predicting it, but just watching it was fascinating.
Dave

[dave]

Westmo, Seems to be working now. I'm in here using a test id, dave with a small d. It has no privileges, so everything seems OK. I do know that this morning this proboards server was doing some silly stuff, like not show add tags, etc.
Dave

[westmoguy]

I always loved the weather Dave. when I was a kid I'd keep all kinds of stats. Had a couple old Heath Kit stations I put together bback in the 70's.

I kinda lost track of weather statistics when the kids were born and working. We moved up to Westmo in the early 90's and wife let me get a primitive station. Just for my own amusement 'cause that was back when the internet cost so much a minute for dial up LOL.

I'd sit and stare at the thing watching how fast the wind blew. Even had it hit 71mph during the Labor Day storms. I set up a primitive site. It's still hanging around on Tripod taurisano.tripod.com/current_weather.htm

So we moved to the other end of town in 2005, and the deal with the wife was she got her dream kitchen and I got my dream Weather Station ;D

I started CNYWeather.com again for my own enjoyment in May 2005. I'd look and see what the weather was at home,and how cold it was inside while I was working, and one day, WKTV weather found it and the hits started there. The NWS even used my station for the local climate info when they moved their weather station from Oneida County to Griffiss Airport.

I joined a few weather sites and there's one in particular that has a lot of retired computer wizards who are into the weather too, that write all the fancy scripts and templates for us for free. I've dabbled a bit myself and it's really a lot of fun.

I have upgraded the site 1000 times and always finding new scripts or add-ons. The webcam is probably the most popular. I get emails from people all over the world who either lived in Central NY or have relatives here, and they like to see the weather up here. From what I'm told, the cam is on WKTV weather a lot during the noon hour. I've seen it a few times.

In a good month, there are over 10,000 unique visitors to the site. Last Tuesday when we had the severe weather there were 88 people on the site at once which blew my mind and the old record away.

It's fun that my little hobby is enjoyed by so many. Who knows what I'll be adding next. Almost time for a new station too HAHA.

I miss anything Dave?

Tony

[Dave]

Tony,
That sure brings back a lot of memories. For me it was around 1954 when I got an Airguide aneroid barometer, cloud chart, etc. and began keeping track of the weather. A couple of years later I got a kit by Taylor that was made for older kids and included a min/max thermometer, a wet bulb hygrometer (not a sling) and the most impressive instrument, a mercurial barometer. Plus a very primitive anemometer that I could never get to work well. A far cry from the little device I have now that incorporates an anemometer and temp/humidity gauges that reads out on a small display in my kitchen that I bought for under a hundred bucks at Sam's a few years ago. I'm a radio amateur and it turns out many hams are also interested in the weather and I often see small weather station ads in the back of radio magazines. And of course, after signal reports and equipment info is exchanged, we always send weather info.

As a kid I subscribed to the government weather map service, at least every time I had $1.15 to send them for a month's subscription. Each day a fold out weather map arrived at our house with 3 day old weather mapped out across the US. But I found it fascinating anyway. And on the back of the maps there was always an interesting chart or climatological data.

I have always found weather fascinating. I should get a webcam and point it at the mountains. I'm on cable and my PC is on all the time anyway.

[Dave]

Is there a way we can link directly to your website? I know how to link to my More Stories! website. Maybe we could link to CNY Weather in a similar manner?
Dave