In This Issue:

• Here Comes Santa Claus, with Vantage Pro2’s For All Good Boys and Girls
• So, Where Does That Leave Our Original Vantage Pro?
• Vantage Pro Helps Kids in the Philippines
• Experts at Your Fingertips
• More Hurricane Survivor Tale
• You’re Brilliant! Answers to Quiz Questions
• Who You Gonna Call? Davis!

Here Comes Santa Claus, with Vantage Pro2’s For All Good Boys and Girls

What fun we had a few weeks ago unveiling our newest weather station, the Vantage Pro2 . The elves (especially those in Santa’s engineering and production staff) had their hands full getting the new gadget ready to ship in time for the holidays, but they did it. And now the shipping elves are madly doing their thing to make sure that Vantage Pro2s all get a primo spot under the Christmas tree.

We told you in our special announcement that the Vantage Pro2 boasted some improvements over its predecessor. (And let us tell you, right here, it is not easy to improve an already excellent product!) Our engineering staff was obsessed with increasing the distance over which the integrated sensor suite (ISS) could communicate with the wireless console. Our original Vantage Pro usually had more than enough radio power for most users. But sometimes we’d hear from a customer who wanted to put an ISS way out in the back vineyard, and read it in the main house. Sometimes the vineyard was so far away that even a couple of repeaters had a hard time relaying the data to the console. And there were also a few folks who found that their home or office was somehow just unwilling to share the radio waves, serving up interference from metal in walls, other wireless products, or just, seemingly, meanness.

It was those users who inspired our design team to incorporate the spread-spectrum frequency hopping radio technology that puts the Vantage Pro2 in a class by itself. Instead of broadcasting on one frequency, our new Vantage Pro2 sends out a signal that “hops” along a wide frequency range. If there is interference on one frequency, don’t worry, within a few seconds the transmitter will hop to another. This was a wild success, with the ISS smoothly sending data 1000 feet to the console. (In the overseas version, the width of frequency available to use for this kind of technology was much narrower. Although there are necessarily fewer “hops,” the range is the same 1000 feet/300 meters!) And repeaters are still available for those who want their ISS in the vineyard beyond the back vineyard! Here at Davis we built a new ISS deck on the very far corner of our large, metal-and-wall-loaded, wireless-infested building. After our forest of ISS’s was moved out there, we were delighted to find that Vantage Pro2 console sitting on our desk in the very front of the building has yet to miss a beat!

There are a few other changes in the new Vantage Pro2. The first thing old-time Vantage Pro users might notice is that the buttons on the console are a bit different. Our design crew reviewed the most-used functions and made them a bit easier to access. The overall effect is to make the use of the console a little more user friendly. The console got a make-over in its overall complexion as well, and is now an elegant charcoal color. On the ISS, old-to-new users might notice that the there is more black plastic and less white plastic used. Our design crew liked the weather- and UV-resistance of the black plastic, as well as way black seems to camouflage itself in outdoor settings. But they worried that more black plastic might affect the temperature readings. So they ran a series of tests comparing the performance of black, white, and even gray plastics and found that the difference was statistically insignificant.

What did affect the temperature reading slightly was more of a surprise. To make the electrical components and battery more accessible and better protected, their shelter was moved from its original location below the radiation shield to the front of the rain collector. The test crew found that this move affected the temperature readings slightly, but it also allowed room to add another radiation plate to the shield, which more than offsets any temperature skewing.

Another noticeable change is the slick metal-surfaced tipping bucket mechanism inside the rain collector cone. Besides looking totally snazzy, the aluminum surface will keep the rain data very consistent over the long and outdoorsy life of the unit.

Bring on the rain, we say! Vantage Pro2 is the only consumer weather station that has a metal-surfaced tipping bucket! Bring on the cell phones and garage door openers and vast acreage and metal struts: Vantage Pro2 is the only station in its price range with spread spectrum frequency hopping technology! Bring on the salty air of the coast and the icy winters of the mountains: Vantage Pro2’s transmitter and electrical components are snug and safe! Bring on the heat: Vantage Pro2 has the radiation shield built to take it. Bring on the wind: Vantage Pro2 has the same amazingly endurable anemometer that served its predecessor so well in hurricanes, tornados and typhoons all over the world. (We tried to find a way to improve that thing, but, it’s already, like, perfect!)

If you have been thinking about moving up to the best wireless weather station there is, we just made it easier. The Vantage Pro2 is the clear winner. And if there is a weather nut on your holiday gift list, when he finds a Vantage Pro2 wrapped up with his name on it, you'll be the clear winner!

Weather Check Quiz Question 1: Why is Santa so strongly proactive in his off-season work to curb global warming?

So, Where Does That Leave Our Original Vantage Pro?

If your original Vantage Pro is sulking over the news of the Vantage Pro2, you should go right out and comfort it. Remind it that it is the (second) best weather station out there. If it has been reporting faithfully for your particular use, you can tell it that you don’t need that fancy schmancy frequency hopping stuff. Tell it that you will clean it up nice for spring, and that you think the white plastic is just as elegant as the black. Tell it not to worry, that Davis will continue to provide technical and repair support as needed.

If that doesn’t work, get it a new accessory of some kind. (The radio technology for Vantage Pro2 is not compatible with original Vantage Pro, so be sure to choose the right wireless accessory.) Although original Vantage Pro stations have been discontinued and are no longer available (do not tell it that!), accessories and options for original Vantage Pro will be still be available.

Then a nice little hug would be order. (Hey, some people hug trees! Why not weather stations?)

Weather Check Quiz Question 2: In December 1952, 12,000 people died in London as a result of what weather phenomenon: A.a deadly flood; B.a lethal lightning-started fire; C. a killer fog; or D. a fatal freeze?

Vantage Pro Helps Kids in the Philippines

Br. Dan Fenton, FSC, who teaches science at De La Salle North Catholic High School in Portland, OR, sent us this charming photo of a Vantage Pro hanging out with a bunch of new friends in the Philippines. He told us that De La Salle North is a special school for low-income students, all of whom have jobs that pay for most of their tuition.

“This year our students raised money to purchase a Davis weather station and software for a project in the Philippines. The project, called Bahay Paga-asa (House of Hope) is a residential center for boys who have been previously incarcerated in jails on the island of Negros. These boys are from extremely poor families and most of them have suffered great abuse in jails and police lockups. Since this center is run by teachers in our organization (De La Salle Brothers) we decided to help provide an educational opportunity by purchasing and sending this weather station.

“I traveled to Bacolod City in the summer of 2004 and, with the residents at Bahay Pag-asa, set up the station in the courtyard of the center. It was an ideal project for these kids since they are still under court sentence and cannot leave the property. The installation of the equipment was easy and the kids were thrilled to see immediate data arriving at the console. I taught lessons in weather science to the students and our laboratory was the Davis weather station and the wild weather provided by the Philippines. After a week of practice, the students began to report their weather findings on a small radio station run by a nearby high school. You can imagine how much it means for boys, who have previously given up all hope, to have a chance to provide an important service to their community.

“The weather station, along with the WeatherLink software provided a unique educational opportunity that will continue to educate and motivate these kids long after my departure. Thank you for your excellent products!”

What a great story for the holiday season!

Weather Check Quiz Question 3: In 1991, the Philippines contributed something very grand—and destructive -- to the world’s weather. So grand, in fact, that people in Wisconsin and Russia are still talking about it, and so grand that it caused the world’s temperature to fall by an average of almost 1ºC. What was it?

Experts at Your Fingertips

One of the perks of being on this end of the Davis Weather Club E-News, is that if there is ever anything you want to be a little more enlightened about, you can forget doing any tedious research. Just put it in the next issue, and a whole cadre of experts will inform you!

For example, a few issues back we discussed why Greenwich Mean Time was assigned the coordinate of Z, and so is sometimes called Zulu time. Reader Harry Maybeck knows all about it, and will tell you himself if you read his paper.

We even found the answer to a question we had thought but not voiced: why is Coordinated Universal Time abbreviated as UTC instead of CUT? (According to Harry, it’s because “the United Nations, still considering French as the international language, have designated the official designator for Coordinated Universal Time as UTC, as the initials would appear in French.”)

Harry, you rock!

Andy Mcfadyen, from Perth, Australia chimed in with an extra tidbit of knowledge in reference to the rainbow quiz question. He wrote, “Your answer to the quiz question ‘to see a rainbow’ was almost right. You forgot to add that there must be an angle of between 40 and 42 degrees from the observer’s eye to the top of the rainbow (red) and the lower edge of the rainbow (violet). Without this piece of critical criteria, a rainbow would not be seen.”

And Mike Jordan, from Guildford, England, has a few thoughts about the US’s reluctance to join the rest of the world in using metric measurements. “It's not just in temperature measurement that the United States finds itself in a minority of one. The US is the only country in the world not committed to the adoption, at least in the long term, of the Systeme International d'Unites (SI), the broader modern metric system based on seven fundamental units (mass, length, time, temperature, electric current, luminosity and amount of substance) and an ordered set of derived units, abbreviations and multipliers.

“American technical and scientific publications are bedeviled with misuses of the metric system, the continued use of obsolete units and spellings that the rest of the world doesn't recognize any more. C'mon, America! Click here for an introduction to SI”

We’re doing our best, Mike, we really are!

Our story on hail was particularly timely for Jackie Ericksen of Placitas, NM.

“I live in a mountain village in north central New Mexico,” Jackie wrote. “I have lived in New Mexico since 1947, and have never seen ‘big’ hail. I still haven't, because this month when a severe storm thundered through central New Mexico, I was at my daughter's home in Albuquerque (with my car, fortunately!) and missed the worst of the storm, which I could see raging past. Unfortunately I didn't take my house along. Golf ball sized hail stripped the leaves and small twigs and branches from all the trees in the village, leaving a thick bed of leaves everywhere, and punched several dozen holes in my roofing. In Socorro, south of Albuquerque, where softball size hail smashed cars (I saw pictures of cars with caved in roofs and hoods, totally smashed out front and rear windows) the scientists at New Mexico Tech (big lightning and thunderstorm research community) made lemonade by cutting open the hailstones and attempting to determine how many trips up and down the iceballs had made before pummeling their cars”

We enjoyed a bit of lemonade ourselves when Jackie added this post script: “I am very pleased to report that my Vantage Pro, mounted on my communications tower, was unfazed by the storm, and told me all about it when I got home.”

And finally all hail Jan Null, of Golden Gate Weather, who would not allow us to remain another moment in the ignorance of thinking that the big hailstone that fell in Coffeyville, KS still held the US size record.

“Last year,” Jan tells us, “a new record was set in Aurora, NE.” The new king of hail measured 18.75 inches (47.6 cm) around, and had a 7-inch (17.8 cm) diameter, handily beating the Coffeyville Kid’s 5.7-inch (14.5 cm) diameter and 17.5 inch (44.5 cm) circumference. You can read all about it here.

Weather Check Quiz Question 4: According to Harry Maybeck, there is a dilemma caused using letters of the alphabet to identify time zones. There are 24 hours in the day, and there are 25 time zones (since each half zone either side of the International Date Line became a designated zone). But there are 26 letters in the alphabet. What letter was left out?

More Hurricane Survivor Tales

We’re still fielding hurricane stories! Clark Hall from Mobile AL, sent a graph of wind and barometer data measured by his Weather Monitor II on September 14, 2004; the other of rainfall and barometer measured on the 15th. One shows a spike of rain, the other a spike of wind, right in the middle of dramatic “V” of barometer!

Butch, who lives in Loxahatchee, FL ran his Vantage Pro through Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. The faithful Vantage Pro reported back a high gust of 109 mph (175 kph) during Jeanne, and low barometer of 28.63 inches (969.5 mb)during Frances. (Frances tossed something at the anemometer, which put it temporarily out of commission.)

Thinking about retiring to a quiet tropical island to spend your days lazing in the balmy beach breezes? Maybe you should check out these post-hurricane photos from the Caymans before you buy that ticket to paradise!

Finally, we’ve had about enough Hurricane Chat and don’t want to seem discriminatory, so how about a little Typhoon Talk. Typhoon enthusiast D. Michael V. Padua from Naga City, Philippines “enjoyed” meeting Typhoon Muifa (Unding) which passed by Naga City on November 19. (Luckily, he had just four months earlier installed a new Vantage Pro!) Then in December, Super Typhoon Nanmadol (Yoyong) passed about 100 miles (160 km) north of Naga. His VP measured high gusts of 51 mph (82 kph), low barometer of 29.28 inches (991.4 mb), and high rain rate of 2.46 inches (6.3 cm), total storm rainfall (Nov. 30 – Dec. 2) of 6.84 inches (17.4 cm). Michael sent us a copy of his fascinating report and observation of the storms. He told us that Mufia (Unding) was a rare type of tropical cyclone, and one that will go down in history as the worst since Super Typhoon Angela (Nov., 1995). Mufia was unusual in its westward drift, stop overs that lasted for days, its rare clockwise loop just east of Luzon, and its final southwestward track across Camarines Sur. Michael’s report includes many juicy weather details, from a meteorologist’s-eye view. Michael’s website is chock full of fascinating typhoon information. There are video clips, one of which, “The Aftermath @ Sunrise” features the Vantage Pro.

Weather Check Quiz Question 5: The Philippines have been named fourth in what world-wide contest of dubious distinction?

You're Brilliant! Answers to Quiz Questions

Question 1: It was recently predicted that global warming will lead to the endangerment and possible extinction of wild reindeer and caribou by the end of the century. According to an article by Joel Schwartz in University Week, Rudolph and his cohorts will not be able to survive the warmer summers that will be brought on by global warming. Add the effects of tundra fires, mining and construction, oil development, and the destruction of lichens by atmospheric pollutants, and we’ve got a sad recipe for making Blitzen and Vixen just fond memories.

Question 2: C. It could only happen in London: it was fog. The fog resulted from a severe temperature inversion that trapped 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and pollutants produced by coal-burning industrial furnaces and home heaters.

Question 3: The eruption of the Pinatubo volcano. In June 1991, according to the Pinatubo Volcano site, Pinatubo “erupted so violently that more than 5 billion cubic meters of ash and pyroclastic debris were ejected from its fiery bowels producing eruption columns 18 kilometers wide at the base and heights reaching up to 30 kilometers above the volcano’s vent.

“In its wake 847 people lay dead, 184 injured, 23 missing, and more than 1 million people displaced…. For months, the ejected volcanic materials remained suspended in the atmosphere where the winds dispersed them to envelope the earth, reaching as far as Russia and North America. … Clearly, Pinatubo’s eruption signals the world’s most violent and destructive volcanic event of the 20th century.”

More about Pinatubo’s impact on the world’s climate can be found on About.com and on the USGS website.

Question 4: Well, jeepers, it’s the noble J. Harry says that the sound for the letter J was frequently not found in many languages of the time, and so it was left out.

Question 5 : “According to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Philippines was the fourth most accident prone country in the world. The two institutions arrived at this conclusion after finding out that some 5,809,986 Filipinos were killed or injured as a result of disasters or man-made calamities over a ten-year period (1992-2001).

"According to the Philippine Red Cross, 31,835 Filipinos were killed and 94,369,462 others were affected by natural disasters and calamities in a span of 20 years. ‘The Philippines was a natural laboratory for floods, typhoons, monsoon rains, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides,’ Philippine National Red Cross governor Dante Liban said. (Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)”

Big among the contributors to these statistics were typhoons (Thelma, November 5, 1991, caused a flashflood that killed at least 3,000; Ike, September 1984, killed 1,300 people; Angela, 1995 killed 700 people).

Who You Gonna Call?
Each month after the E-News goes out, we receive messages back. Sometimes the messages are in response to a story we shared; other times they are a request for help of some kind. We read all the emails, answer those we can, and pass the rest on to the appropriate departments.

We think you should know, though, that if you're interested in the fastest possible reply, news@davisnet.com may not be the best place to send your message. Questions about how things work should be addressed to tech support directly at support@davisnet.com. For general information about the products, such as how much cable comes with a station contact sales@davisnet.com. To request a catalog, you’ll find links for catalog requests on our web site at http://www.davisnet.com/contact/catalog.asp

Please continue to send your comments, weather URL's, and story suggestions to news@davisnet.com. We look forward to getting your comments and any responses you have to the E-News. Member participation is what keeps the E-News alive and kicking.

Well, that’s it for this edition. You’ll be hearing from us again next month!


Vantage Pro2, Vantage Pro2 Plus, Vantage Pro, Vantage Pro Plus, Weather Monitor, Weather Wizard, WeatherLink, Weather Envoy, and Perception are trademarks of Davis Instruments Corp.