Davis Instruments Weather Club
February 1999
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Here's a quick preview of this month's contents:
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Davis Quick Reference Cards continue their meteoric rise to fame and fortune... Reclaim your station after a critter invasion... A Florida professor erects his own personal Gulf Coast weather network... A reader touts the Monitor II's storm-savvy.... And Davis announces a call for photos... Enjoy!
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Davis: Quick Reference Cards make an encore appearance in Hollywood
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Remember back in August we told you that the Quick Reference Cards were going to appear in the shark-infested, genetically engineered thriller "Deep Blue Sea"? Well, apparently the cards' stellar performances in DBS have garnered well-deserved attention from other Hollywood VIPs. Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks now wants to feature the cards opposite Tom Hanks in its upcoming dramatic comedy "Cast Away". It's about a straight-laced, rules-and-regs FedEx manager who rethinks some of life's priorities when a plane crash strands him on a deserted island for 3 years. We're not sure, as yet, if and how the cards will aid Tom's enlightenment, but we'll be sure to keep you informed.
As far as we can tell, the Tom Hanks film is still shooting and doesn't yet have a promotional web site. Warner Bros. "Deep Blue Sea," on the other hand, is vigorously counting down the weeks to its summer release at http://www.deepbluesea.net.
You can find out more about the Weather and Marine Quick Reference Cards from their "publicity" page at http://davisnet.com/marine/products/quick.asp. They're also available online from Amazon.com - to find them, just enter keyword "Seapoint" in the search box.
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How To: Reclaim your station from the critters
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With the passing of Groundhog's Day a few short weeks ago, our focus has been arrested by the small, yet commanding, critters of the world. Groundhogs aside, we've been regaled, over the years, with stories about weather stations going toe to toe with nature's meek and mighty.
What have we heard? You name it: birds taking up residence in rain collectors; spider webs holding wind cups or tipping buckets hostage; albatross redesigning anemometer arms according to their own obscure blueprints; dogs tearing up display consoles; cows investigating the nutritional value of cabling; and the list goes on. Most recently, a club member wrote in to tell us about the odd humidity readings left by lizards living in his radiation shield...
Whatever the cause, when odd readings rear their homely head, try giving your entire system a good once-over. Check the sensor that's giving you problems and clear out any critters or debris. Also check all your cabling for nicks, cuts, and abrasions. Examine all the connections, refit them, and look for physical damage or corrosion.
Common gaffes? Lack of maintenance lets spiders, dust, and dirt build up and impair the station's performance. Not properly securing the cables leaves them at the mercy of the wind. Whipping cables can cause internal cable damage that's not always easy to spot. Neglecting to weatherproof outdoor connections is an open invitation for corrosion to move in.
If all else fails, email our top-notch technical support team at support@davisnet.com! They collect not only their own fabulous solutions, but those of our customers as well.
And if, perchance, you find yourself more than passingly interested in the critter of the month, check out this site devoted to Punxsutawney Phil (i.e., Mr. Groundhog) at http://www.groundhog.org.
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Cool Applications: A Monitor II Gulf Coast weather network
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This month's cool application comes to us from Brandenton, Florida, where one enterprising scientist is single-handedly erecting his own Monitor II weather network across the state of Florida.
Dr. Jim Gilreath, horticulturist and weed scientist at the University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC) near Sarasota, Florida, has planted three stations thus far in the gulf coast. One station (Jim's own) is residing in his orange grove; another (the university's) is plunked down in a caladium farm near Lake Placid; and the third (also the university's) is at the GCREC headquarters in Brandenton. The stations span from the east coast inland about 90 miles.
(Caladiums are, according to Jim, ornamental plants grown from tubers for their colorful foliage. Lake Placid is, apparently, the caladium capital of the world.)
As soon as funds permit, Jim's planning to add more solar-powered Monitors (and, ideally, some GroWeathers) to flesh out his burgeoning weather network so that he can begin investigating topics like disease prediction modeling and weed seed germination in more depth.
If you'd like more information on the GCREC and other University of Florida agricultural research centers, check out their site at http://gcrec.ifas.ufl.edu/.
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Talk Back - After the storm
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This month's story comes from Barbara Kendrick of San Carlos, California. Barbara writes:
>Last night, in the windstorm, my neighborhood lost power. When I came downstairs this morning, still in the pitch dark, I was met by furiously flashing clocks and dials on what seemed like every appliance I own.
>Not a cheering sight.
>Imagine my surprise and delight when I checked my trusty weather station and found it working perfectly! It even recorded a wind gust of 38 mph in the middle of the blackout!
>I've always found much enjoyment from tracking weather on my station, but it was especially heartening to find that it works on faithfully despite bad weather! That's a great feature you've added....
Thanks, Barbara, we're always thrilled to hear when our weather stations chug mightily through rough conditions! And we do agree that the backup battery feature is a pretty nice perk!
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Miscellany of the Moment: Call for Photos!!
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As we head into our eighth month, we hope we're becoming more and more what we set out to be: a forum for sharing common and uncommon uses for our products, as well as interesting weather info and events.
As part of this ongoing mission, we'd like to invite you to send in a photo of yourself and your station. We'd love to know who's using our products, and we'd be delighted to see what you're doing with it! If we end up using the photo on the web or in one of our publications, we'll send you a $100 gift certificate for Davis products!
Please send any pictures - along with your name, address, phone number, email address and a short description of who you are and how you're using the station - to:
Susan Foxall
Marketing Manager
Davis Instruments
3465 Diablo Ave.
Hayward, CA 94545-2778
(USA)
Or, if you like, you can attach the photo(s) to an email and send it to news@davisnet.com.
(Note: please don't send us any originals; the photo you send us won't be returned!)
We'll be sure to contact you before using your photo. And, as always, we look forward to hearing from you!
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That's it for February's E-news! See you next month!
The Davis Weather Club E-newsletter
mailto:news@davisnet.com
