David Laschinger
You have probably wondered how much precipitation fell nearby or curious how hard the wind is blowing. But if you open one of the popular weather apps, the information is from stations at a school or airport several miles from your home. Is there a way to get weather information “close to home”?
Yes, there is. Personal weather stations offer a great solution, and several Robson residents own them. But you may ask, “That’s great for them, but how does it benefit me?”
These devices are designed to connect through the owner’s Wi-Fi to a free Internet site called Weather Underground. Most weather station owners are willing to share the data from their device on this site.
Several years ago, a Robson resident prepared a list of the existing weather stations in our community, and the information was shown on the HOA website. Over the years, however, the list was neglected and many of the weather stations were no longer in existence or had gone “offline.”
The list was updated a few weeks ago. All broken links were either corrected or removed. As the community has grown, new residents have added their weather stations to Weather Underground, and those were included in the new list. Now the list has 15 weather station links, double the previous one.
Want to see for yourself? Log onto the Robson HOA website. On the top navigation menu, hover over “Resources” and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on “Weather” and you will see a list of weather stations. The approximate street address of each weather station is shown, so you can surely find one near you. The first location on this list is near the ballpark, and the list progresses clockwise around the Ranch. By clicking on the link under any address, you will see the data being sent from that station through the Internet.
These stations give the current and recent weather conditions. For weather forecasts and emergency warnings, you still need to rely on other weather apps and broadcast channels. But having nearby weather conditions close to home and not from several miles away is useful for all of us.