Davis Instruments Weather Club
June 1999
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Here's a quick preview of this month's contents:
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Davis arms you with a Toolbox for the web.... A club member seeks help with Excel.... An anemometer wings it atop the 175 ft. Xtreme Skyflyer.... And a thanks for your spectacular stories... Enjoy!
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Davis News: WeatherLink Toolbox
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We've finally done it! For all of you who have wanted more ways to stay in touch with your weather, we'd like to present the fresh-off-the-showroom-floor WeatherLink Toolbox! The Toolbox is a stunning little software package that enables you to easily post your weather data to a website and then update that data automatically as time goes on and conditions change. It even has the added feature of letting you page yourself and friends (via phone or pager) when weather conditions get exciting.
Like the original WeatherLink software, the Toolbox uses your WeatherLink data logger to communicate with your station. It then takes the station data and uploads it to your website in the form of graphs, charts, and text. The Toolbox comes with several sample web pages which you can either use as is, modify as needed, or discard altogether in favor of your own wild creations. It also comes with a nifty Java applet that scrolls whatever conditions you select in a ticker-tape across your web page.
As its name implies, the Toolbox arms you with the technology you need to share your weather data with others, fast, effectively, and in whatever format you choose. To run the Toolbox, you need
* a weather station (Monitor II, Wizard III or II-S, Perception or GroWeather),
* a WeatherLink (or GroWeatherLink) data logger, and
* a PC running Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0.
You'll also need a modem if you want to send alerts to phones or pagers, or if your Internet connection requires a modem, or if you're using a remote modem to communicate with your station.
For more information, check out
http://davisnet.com/weather/products/weather_product.asp?pnum=07802 or contact our sales department at sales@davisnet.com.
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Talk Back: Are there any Excel users out there?
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In past months, we've gotten some good club member discussions going from various user questions that we've received. Here again, in that spirit, we offer you this query sent in by Bill Krause of Washington state:
> I use the Excel spreadsheet program to compile and produce weather statistics from data I enter. I am wondering if there are any other Weather Club members also using Excel. I would like help in getting Excel to make some calculations that I have not yet figured out how to get it to make, like growing season and precipitation probability. I would also be willing to exchange data with other members in the Excel format. I have 8 years of data from the North Cascades region of Washington State.
Is anyone else using Excel to make weather-related calculations? If you are and you think you can help Bill, please write us at news@davisnet.com and we'll either forward your responses on to Bill or address them in the next e-newsletter.
One solution we can offer you, Bill, is our WeatherLink for Excel API. The API allows you to pull your weather data directly from your station into Excel 97 and offers a sample degree-day model that performs automatic calculations on sample archival data. The Excel API is available for download, free, on our website at http://davisnet.com/support/weather/software.asp. We encourage you to give it a go!
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Cool Application: An anemometer wings it atop the Xtreme Skyflyer!
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Summer is here and amusement parks are popular diversions. Have you ever wondered what the winds are like on top of a rollercoaster or any of the other high-flying rides? Well the folks at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, California have installed a Davis station at the top of their Xtreme Skyflyer(tm) arch to tell them just that. They've even integrated a Davis WeatherTalker so they can call and hear the weather from anywhere in the park, or beyond.
At about 175 feet above the ground, the Xtreme Skyflyer is one of the more wind-sensitive attractions at Great America - it drops thrill-seekers three at a time into a free-falling, free-wheeling face-down flight above the park. Flyers reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour on the free-fall. Great America monitors the wind speed at the top of the arch to identify any possibility of danger. If winds reach 30 mph, they shut the ride down. To check out the Xtreme Skyflyer ride, go to Great America's website at http://www.pgathrills.com.
Many amusement parks monitor the weather for both ride safety and visitor comfort. Keep your eyes peeled this summer and see if you can spot a Davis anemometer. We've seen them at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, Disneyland, Paramount's King's Island in Ohio, and we know of one at Table Mountain in South Africa.
For a more global guide to rollercoasters on the web, check out http://www.themeparks.about.com. Or, for some good, clean, virtual fun, build your very own rollercoaster at http://www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/. As you build, don't forget to put a Davis weather station on top!
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Miscellany of the Moment: Thanks for the pictures and stories!
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The 1999 Weather Catalog is here, and you might be surprised by who's inside. We've included pictures showing nine of our weather club members, and stories describing 5 more! Gift certificates are winging their way towards to each of you as we speak.
If you'd like to receive a copy of the 1999 Catalog and you're not sure if you're already on our mailing list, we invite you to send an email with your name and address to sales@davisnet.com.
Remember it's not too late to get into the 2000 Catalog. We're partial to "me and my station pictures." We know that as phenomenal as our stations are, the real story is the people using them!
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That's it for June's E-news! See you next month!
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http://davisnet.com/news/e_club_signup.asp
The Davis Weather Club E-newsletter
mailto: news@davisnet.com
