Jun 28, 2023
A new weather station debuts at the Advance/SILive.com.
The Advance/SILive.com's new weather station. (Staten Island Advance/Shaina McLawrence) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Advance/SILive.com’s weather coverage will get a new look moving forward. A brand-new
The Advance/SILive.com's new weather station. (Staten Island Advance/Shaina McLawrence)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Advance/SILive.com’s weather coverage will get a new look moving forward.
A brand-new weather station (a Davis Vantage Pro 2, for the weather nerds out there) installed last month by yours truly will give us a jolt of borough-specific data that will make its way into our daily coverage.
Located atop Corporate Commons Three in Bloomfield, the building that houses the Advance/SILive.com offices, the station has the capabilities of providing temperature, precipitation and wind-speed readings. For the past few weeks, data from the station has been logged, creating the official start of a period of record for the site.
Why get our own weather station?
I’m glad you asked.
For my past few years at the Advance/SILive.com, I’ve covered a range of weather events — from tropical storms and hurricanes to blizzards and extreme cold. In nearly all instances, we had to rely on official data from one of the National Weather Service’s climate sites. The closest locations are the agency’s flagship station in Central Park and the sites at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.
The data from those sites is still important. Their period of record (Central Park has data going back to the 1800s) is essential to understanding long-term changes in climate and tracking record-breaking weather occurrences.
However, now Staten Island can get a bit of its own focus.
The Advance/SILive.com's new weather station. (Staten Island Advance/Shaina McLawrence)
In the first weeks of its operation, I’ve verified rainfall totals tracked by the station with the National Weather Service. Its anemometer, which tracks wind speeds, is unimpeded by structures and is operating as expected.
Now, we will start to use the data in our coverage.
How that will look a few weeks or months from now may change, but expect storm coverage to include precipitation and wind speed totals from our station. It may only initially take the form of a few paragraphs, but we feel that depth is something Staten Islanders care about.
In the longer term, we can track trends and see the extent of prolonged events like heatwaves and multi-day rain-outs. For that, you may see new visuals in the forms of charts detailing the conditions on Staten Island.
Want to get a better glimpse of the station? I took a trip to the roof with my colleague Erik Bascome, the Advance/SILive.com’s “From the Scene” podcast host, for an episode centered on the new tool.
If you have questions, send a note my way: [email protected].
What is the Staten Island Climate Diary? Click here to learn more.
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