Take the rain, plan the weekend
OK, so it's beginning to look like a cool, drippy week. Forecasters are calling for gray skies and an increasing chance of showers until Friday. But think of it as a down payment on the weekend. Once the gray skies move out, we're looking at sunshine and highs in the upper 70s through the weekend and into Monday. Here's the forecast.
In the meantime, onshore breezes will continue to shove water onto the Western Shore. Winds at the Sun's Big-shot Lot are blowing out of the east at about 5 mph this morning, gusting to 9 mph. The same wind is kicking up rough surf at the beaches, and there could be minor flooding at high tides. Here's the Kite Loft beach cam.
And look where Hurricane Florence's storm-force winds may be headed in the next week or so. Ireland.
Comments
Where, exactly, is the Sun's new weather station? Is it on top of the building or down on the ground, or does it have different elements positioned in different places?
Posted by: Dave Cohn | September 13, 2006 8:22 AM
The Sun's new weather station is mounted on a pole on the east side of the executive parking lot. The sensors and rain gauge are about 8 feet up from the executive lot on one side, and 20 or so feet above the freight yard immediately to the east. The wind vane and anemometer are about 4 feet higher on the same pole. We tried the roof, but could not get the wireless signal down to the newsroom. The solar-powered transmitter is supposed to have a 1,000-foot range, but it's evidently not strong enough to get through six floors of reinforced concrete. We also tried the garage roof next door. Same problem. The site is not ideal. I expect we'll get some extra heat radiating back from the pavement in summer. And winds from the north and south may be attenuated by the surrounding buildings. But I figure it will be pretty representative of what people will experience at many urban sites in Baltimore. People don't live on rooftops, after all. Snow and ice will be a problem, as we have no heater on the rain gauge. Snow may pile up and take a few days to melt and trickle through the tipping buckets. We're also going to have to scoop gingko leaves out of the rain gauge from time to time in autumn. And it is NOT connected to the time-and-temperature sign on the east side of the Sun Building. We DO hope to make our data available on the Website, once we receive the gear from Davis Instruments and figure out how to hook it up.
Posted by: frank roylance | September 13, 2006 10:45 AM