Davis
Instruments Weather Club
January/February 2005
In This Issue:
Your Votes Make CarChip the Winner!
Okay, everyone, raise your right arm, now your left. Place your right hand behind your left shoulder, your left hand behind your right shoulder. Now, hug. Tighter. That was for your awesome response to our recent special announcement that our little automotive gadget, CarChip,
was in the running to be named PC Magazine’s “Last Gadget Standing” at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Your votes helped make CarChip the winner!
For you weather enthusiasts who might not even know that Davis also has a line of automotive products and a line of marine products, CarChip is a handy little thing (about the size of a couple of 9v batteries) that plugs into the OBDII (On Board Diagnostics) port that is on all 1996 or later US automobiles. It then collects driver and engine data, stores it, and allows you to download the data to your computer. You can see how fast you (or your teenager?) were driving, why your “check engine” light came on, how many miles you drove, and lots of other information. It has been very popular with do-it-yourselfers, parents of teen drivers, people who drive for work, and employers of company vehicle drivers.
So far, CarChip is “four for four” for awards: in 2002 it was named “Best Engineered New Product” at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) show; in 2003, it was a finalist in the Tech TV’s “Best of CES” competition; in 2004 it was named an “Innovations Honoree in Design and Engineering;” and this year we continued our winning streak with “Last Gadget Standing.”
Thank you all who voted. (Come on; give yourself one more little squeeze, because it wasn’t even a weather product!!)
Weather Check Quiz Question 1: (Prepare to be amazed by our clever ability to tie CarChip to a weather question.) CarChip won’t measure wind speed, but a smart weather person like you could figure out what the wind resistance was on your front bumper if you kept detailed data on wind speed and direction (easy, use your roof mounted Vantage Pro2), driving speed (easy, use your CarChip), and your direction of travel (Boy Scout compass?). Undertaking this study would require you moving to the windiest city in the US, of course. The highest (non-tornado) wind speed ever recorded was 231 mph atop Mt. Washington, NH, but which of these cities is the windiest (that is, has the highest mean wind speed):
A. Chicago, IL
B. Amarillo, TX
C. Anchorage, AK
Easy Extra Credit: Here’s an easy question that a surprising number of folks would get wrong (none of us, of course!) Wind direction means:
A. Direction toward which the wind is blowing; or
B. Direction from which the wind is blowing.
Our First Vantage Pro2 User Photo
Warren Hudelson sent us our first ever user photo of a new Vantage Pro2 in action: there it is shivering out on the ice at Warren’s fish house on a northern Minnesota lake south of International Falls and north of Grand Rapids. (See it? It’s just to the right of the tree branch.)
“Your vantage Pro2 recorded minus 48 ºF this morning!” Warren reported. “And that was not wind chill...”
Kind of makes you want to curl up by crackling fire, doesn’t it?
Weather Check Quiz Question 2: Aw, Warren, that’s nuthin’! During the Revolutionary War, it got so cold that soldiers used to drag cannons from Staten Island to Manhattan across the frozen Upper New York Bay. And, it was so cold during the winter of 1816 that Russian settlers at Fort Ross on the Northern California coast were snowed in and starving, and were saved only when the local Kashaya Indians gave them salted fish and dried acorn paste. Which historical tidbit is fact, and which is fancy?
New Streaming Data Loggers Shipping!
We're happy to announce that two of our new WeatherLink modules, WeatherLink for Irrigation Control, and WeatherLink for Emergency Response Teams are heading out our doors! (The third new module, the WeatherLink for APRS should be not far behind!)
WeatherLink for Irrigation Control allows you to use your Vantage Pro2 to turn your irrigation system on and off based on current weather conditions.
WeatherLink for Emergency Response Teams is for use with CAMEO® software. With Vantage Pro2, it provides real-time weather data to map and predict dispersion of hazardous plumes.
We’d love to hear your real life success stories if you are using one of these new modules!
Tsunami Leaves a Grief-Stricken World
While earthquakes and tsunamis are not precisely weather phenomena, they fit into the grandest plans of meteorologist over the ages who seek to provide timely disaster warnings and save lives. The recent horror in southeast Asia has left the whole world stunned and grieving, and further humbles those of us who are already aware of nature’s power and unpredictability. In a few minutes, the shape of the earth literally changed, as did the shape of humanity.
All any of us can do now, after we have given what we can to help the victims, is to learn more and demand the creation and implementation of warning systems.
Jan Null, of Golden Gate Weather sent us several links that help clarify tsunamis. We learned that a tsunami is not one wave, but a series of waves that roll freely across the ocean like a bullwhip. When they approach the shore, they slow and allow great volumes of water to build up and rush over the coastline.
Among his links were an excellent animation; a good basic explanation of tsunamis; and a pre-December 26, 2004 article in Science News that clarifies how warning systems work.
Weather Check Quiz Question 3: Are all tsunami’s caused by earthquakes?
Smoggy Memories
Michael Owner wrote us from the “sunny” Bahamas, (with a note that his Vantage Pro was currently reporting a temperature of 68ºF [20ºC], rain, clouds, and 25 mph [40 kph]) winds, to share a memory brought on by our recent Weather Quiz question about a killer fog in London.
“I lived in London, England as a youngster and vividly remember those ‘smogs’,” he wrote. “Visibility was a matter of a few feet and when it got dark, despite the street lights, you literally couldn't see the ground you were walking on! The trams used to rattle along the main road, Lordship Lane in Dulwich, South London at the end of our road and since they knew where they were because of the tracks, long lines of cars could be seen gingerly following them down the road! Mother would urge us to keep a wet handkerchief over our nose and mouth and the dirt that collected was amazing. Those ‘smogs’ lasted for several days getting worse every day until the weather changed. The direct result, apart from the terrible toll it took, was the Clean Air Act which dramatically improved matters, so much so that the ‘smogs’ have not happened since.”
We’ll never complain about Los Angeles again.
Vantage Pro Helps Amateur Astronomer
A Vantage Pro weather station is a very important piece of equipment for the JAT Observatory.
Marcus Thompson, an amateur astronomer, sent us this story about his observatory, and its trusted sidekick, Vantage Pro.
“The JAT Observatory is a small, privately owned, amateur observatory located in Fairless Hills, PA. The observatory is a 2.3 meter diameter dome, constructed of fiberglass. The observatory houses a 254mm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The telescope and dome are computer controlled and are mainly used for solar and lunar observation. From time to time, the observatory is also used for deep sky imaging.
“There are a number of weather related conditions that can affect the telescope and the observatory’s ability to function correctly. During observing sessions, it is very important that the dew point be monitored so moisture does not collect on the telescopes optics. This of course would have a negative affect on the telescope’s ability to see. When the observatory is being used to photograph deep space objects, like nebulas and globular clusters, the images are obtained via long exposure photography. The wind can cause vibrations of the telescope; those vibrations (if large enough) will affect the quality of the image. Temperature changes can require the focus of the telescope to be adjusted or the object being viewed or photographed will appear blurry. Extreme cold can cause the computerized hand box that controls to telescope to become sluggish; heaters need to be enabled to prevent this.
“The JAT Observatory uses the Vantage Pro to monitor the humidity, wind speed and direction, temperature and dew point. The temperature and humidity conditions inside the observatory are monitored using a Wireless Weather Envoy. The Envoy gathers the outside weather conditions such as wind speed and direction from the wireless station mounted nearby. This data is displayed in real-time on the observatory’s weather server using the Weatherlink software. The data is uploaded to the internet at regular intervals to the observatory’s website . In addition the data is also uploaded to the Citizen Weather Observers Program. CWOP data is collect from over 2500 weather stations around the world. The data is used by NOAA for their weather prediction models. The weather station is also used to let the observers know if they should wear a coat and gloves when they go stargazing.”
Thanks, Marcus!
Weather Check Quiz Question 4: What weather conditions make for the best stargazing?
Vantage Pro Wants to Keep School Kids Off Diesel Exhaust
Once again, this Vantage Pro overslept and missed the school bus, so Dad had to load it up and drive it to school…? (Photo by NESCAUM staffer, Al Leston)
Not exactly. George Allen and his colleagues at
NESCAUM (Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use
Management,a multi-state non-profit organization) are doing a study on a “hot topic”
these days: children’s exposure to diesel exhaust from the bus while riding it.
To do so, they followed the bus around town, stopping now and then to make measurements.
“Each time we did that, we needed to know the local wind speed and direction,” George explained. “So we mounted the system on the roof of the car, and always positioned the car in the same way relative to the bus when we stopped. That way we could know if the wind was blowing the bus exhaust back into the bus cabin while doors or windows were open when the bus was idling.”
What a great use of our Vantage Pro. Thanks, George!
You're
Brilliant! Answers to Quiz Questions
Question
1:
Sorry Chicago, Amarillo is the real Windy City! (Mean Wind Speeds: Amarillo, 13.7, Chicago, 10.3, Anchorage 6.8.)
Extra Credit: B of course! A north wind blows from the north toward the south. You can test this by blowing on your wind vane. It will point right back at you!
Question
2: It seems Mother Nature was a rebel back in the 1700’s: those cannons must have been a lot easier to slide over ice than to haul over rutted roads! (Source: Meteorology Today, 7th Edition, by C. Donald Ahrens.) (While the Kashaya and Russians did live side by side in Northern California, they did so enjoying the foggy but temperate and snow-less climate.)
Question
3: No. While the vast majority of tsunamis are caused by earthquakes (and are also just a few centimeters tall), they can also be caused by underwater landslides, meteors, and collapsing volcanic islands.
Question 4: If you missed
“cloudless skies” you must go apologize to your weather station and promise to be a better weather
nut in the future. If you said “dark” and “unpolluted” areas, we’ll give you a point. If you knew that steady air would help, therefore there should be no cold fronts within about 300 miles and nice low winds, you get 3 points. If you knew that being far away from the jet stream (if you are too close, within 225 - 300 miles from the core, your seeing will be poor) you get 5 points.(This according to Christopher Crispin Thiel’s website.) If you knew that John Walker has done all the work for you by posting a “best” to “worst” color coded map of viewing conditions in the United States at , you get the “Way to go, Technoboy!” award!
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.
If you would like to receive the Weather Club e-newsletter via
email every month, sign up now.
 |
