WeatherBlog is 5 years old today
Today, Maryland Weather - the WeatherBlog, the Baltimore Sun's first online Web log - is five years old.
In the last 60 months we have posted almost 2,500 entries, and more than 2,200 reader comments. As we got the hang of this new medium, we have gradually added Web links, pictures and videos. And in July 2006 we began writing weather comments on Page 2A of the print editions.
Our weekly online page views now average around 14,000, but when snowstorms or hurricanes threaten Marylanders, that number can surge to more than 120,000. We generally rank between 10th and 20th of The Baltimore Sun's blogs in weekly reader traffic, not bad for a blog that has nothing to do with sports or eating.
The Sun's Davis Pro 2 weather station, at Calvert and Centre streets, which we pushed for, and made accessible through The Sun's weather page at MarylandWeather.com, gets 30,000 to 40,000 hits a month.
Curiously, while everyone has some need to know about the weather, that's not the topic here that seems to generate the most enthusiasm. In a week without snow or hurricanes in the forecast, it's our posts about the night sky that seems to generate the most reader interest.
Whether it is a passing comet, an expected meteor shower, and prominent display of bright planets or a flyover by the International Space Station, readers seem to get the biggest kick out of being 
plugged in to celestial events they might otherwise have missed.
After 35 years in daily newspapers, the WeatherBlog has been a fun and fascinating new adventure for me. Happily, I have found the daily interaction with readers - through email, snailmail, phone calls and reader comments to the blog - to be the most fun, the most rewarding and challenging part of the assignment. (And that, at right, is where it all happens.)
Anyway, I just wanted to note the anniversary and thank The Sun for the opportunity, and the WeatherBlog's many readers for your interest, kind words and encouragement over the last five years. Please keep those notes, emails and blog questions coming.
Cheers, Frank
(Spaarnestad Photo/Flickr.com; also, SUN PHOTOS by Frank D. Roylance)
Comments
Happy birthday WeatherBlog!! Keep up the great work Frank!
Posted by: Eric | September 10, 2009 8:42 AM
Congratulations, Frank, and thanks from this longtime fan for years of interesting reading.
So, should the blurb at the top of the Web page be corrected? It says the debut was in October 2004.
FR: Thanks. Well, we started writing and posting on the 10th, but the blog didn't actually go "live" until a bit later. We wanted to get the hang of the new platform, and make sure there was more than a handful of entries for readers to look at. So we fudged the blurb a bit since readers didn't have much to see until early October.
Posted by: Dave | September 10, 2009 8:45 AM
Happy anniversary! I always enjoy the WeatherBlog.
FR: Thanks!
Posted by: Al | September 10, 2009 2:06 PM
Congrats on the anniversary. Your blog has been my default home page for years.
FR: Wow. Cool...
Posted by: fred | September 10, 2009 2:21 PM
Congratulations on five years! I've loved you since the start and wish you many more years!
FR: Sshhhh! My wife reads this...
Posted by: Rebecca | September 10, 2009 2:23 PM
Cheers to you! I had this page bookmarked on my computer when I lived in Wales and it was always a familiar reminder of home and its weather conditions!
Glad to be back in B-more and experiencing the wide variety in weather that gets thrown at us each year.
Congrats especially on the 2500 posts. I've been blogging on two blogs for almost three years and haven't even hit 1000 posts!
FR: Thanks. I can't quite believe it, either.
Posted by: pigtown | September 10, 2009 3:43 PM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Frank, I'm never disappointed when I take the time to check out what you've uncovered- which is often. It certainly is an upgrade from waiting for the annual early January article about the upcoming years night- sky events, that I would post over my work bench and anxiously await each happening. Keep up the good work, and tell Kaper he's doing ok too!!
FR: Thanks. And did you notice? After five years with my glasses in my mouth, we've finally replaced my old blog photo with a new one. And my specs are on my nose, where they belong.
Posted by: Charlie from Denton | September 10, 2009 5:35 PM
not bad for a blog that has nothing to do with sports or eating.
The weather has a ton to do with what we eat. It is the reason the peaches were so awesome this year, the tomatoes were late and the melons are good.
Posted by: Lissa | September 10, 2009 6:29 PM
you're a good dude, frank. keep at it . . .
FR: The Dude abides...
Posted by: ron mardeus | September 11, 2009 3:00 PM