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Welcome!
avon-weather.com and the Long Road Weather Station grew out of our interest in watching the weather. As gardeners and as one-time small boat sailors, we have always had an interest in the weather around us. We've used various rain gauges, barometers, radio-based weather stations and weather alert radios. When the last radio-based weather station stopped working, we decided to upgrade to a semi-professional/hobbyist level weather station.
Now that we are retired, we can spend more time in the garden, so we doubled its size this year. Knowing how much rain we get helps detremine watering needs, and once we collect enough data, knowing how we compare to previous months and years makes it all the more interesting.
Once we started getting information from the weather station on the console in the kitchen, it was the logical step to connect it to our computer. Finding software for the Macintosh was easier than I thought, and I found a great community of enthusiasts to help with the learning curve. The software made it easy to contribute our data to the collective at Weather Underground and the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) as well as other contributor-based weather collection agencies. Some of these are used by the National Weather Service and various lake & river, forestry, and agriculture concerns for collecting accumulated weather information. So while it is fun, it is still contributing to valuable resources.
This web page was just the last step in sharing the information we gather. The weather station information is the main attraction, but I've also added (and continue to add) forecasts and weather related information from other sources. Remember, though, that this is just a hobby weather station. For important weather related decisions, you should always consult a professional weather source, such as the National Weather Service, your local NOAA weather radio station, or your local radio or TV staion. We keep a First Alert NOAA emergency weather radio right here beside the computer to warn us of a weather emergency.
Thanks for stopping in to visit! I hope you've found some of the information provided useful. Bookmark this site to come by again.
Steve
About the weather station
This station is powered by a Davis Wireless Vantage Pro2 Plus w/24 hr FARS weather station. [link] Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus weather stations are among the highest quality and most accurate available at the hobbiest level. It is connected to an Apple iMac computer via a Davis WeatherLink datalogger. The data is collected every 2.5 seconds and the web site is updated every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day. The local weather information on this web page is generated by Trixology WeatherCat [link] software. The wireless weather station consists of an anemometer on the roof, and a rain collector, a thermometer/hygrometer sensor with a fan-aspirated radiation shield, UV and Solar sensors, near our garden, which both wirelessly transmit data to an indoor console. These are situated in optimal positions for the highest accuracy possible according to CWOP guidelines. The information we send to CWOP goes through a regular Quality Control routine to verify the accuracy of the data we provide. If it is not up to their standards, it is rejected. Click here for our current status. [link]
We also take daily precipitation and evapotranspiration (ET) readings and post them to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) [link], where nearly 10,000 daily precipitation reports by volunteers contribute to the project. CoCoRaHS is used by a wide variety of organizations and individuals. The National Weather Service, other meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor & recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community are just some examples of those who use the data.
Weather camera and video is from a Sharx Security SCNC3905 wireless IP network camera, and processed using WeatherCat and Ben Software's SecuritySpy [link]
Station Specifications
Location: Long Road, Avon, Ohio
41° 26' 13"N Latitude
82° 2' 51"W Longitude
686 feet Elevation
Wireless Anemometer ~35 feet AGL
Wireless Rain Collector and Thermo/Hydro sensor 5 feet AGL
CoCoRaHS Rain & Snow Gauge 4 feet AGL
Davis Wireless Vantage Pro2 Plus w/24 hr FARS, solar sensor, UV sensor, and DIY rain collector heater
Davis Wireless Anemometer Transmitter
Davis WeatherLink USB datalogger
Davis Leaf & Soil Moisture/Temp Station #1 w/1 Leaf Wetness Sensor and 3 each Soil Temperature and Soil Moisture Sensors
Trixology WeatherCat V3.30, Build 300 (64 bit)
Apple Mac mini M2 Pro (2023) 32 GB RAM, Mac OS 13.3.1
Ben Software's SecuritySpy
Sharx Security HTNC2404M POE Network Camera
CoCoRaHS (Stratus RG202) Official 4" Long Term Professional Rain & Snow Gauge
CoCoRaHS (ETGage Model A) Evapotranspiration Simulator
Nielsen-Kellerman Kestrel 4500 Pocket Weather Tracker w/Wind Vane kit
Casella Campbell-Stoke Sunshine Recorder
Web Site History
Began collecting information with Davis VP2 September 7, 2011
Generic web site generated by LWC2 on September 11, 2011
Began CoCoRaHS precipitation reporting September 14, 2011
Changed to atkinsfamily.org web template September 17, 2011
Customized web site and added weather camera September 20, 2011
Registered domain names avon-weather.com and avonweather.com September 21, 2011
Added "About" page September 29, 2011
Added time-lapse video for "Yesterday" October 1, 2011
Added Twitter feed via @avonweather October 2, 2011
Added UK Met Office WOW Program and Wunderground NOAA Radio October 4, 2011
Added School Closing link October 31, 2011
Added WeatherBug and PWS Weather links. November 12, 2011
Moved graphs to separate page. November 13, 2011
Added Solar Sensor to ISS and Solar graph to "Graphs" page. November 28, 2011 (Thanks, Mark & Sandra!)
Added 2nd webcam and time-lapse movie to web page. December 2, 2011
Added DIY 25 Watt heater to Davis VP2 rail collector. December 9, 2011
Added Facebook account February 1, 2012
Migrated from Lightsoft Weather Center to Trixology WeatherCat February 15, 2012
Added Maps and Radar web page February 26, 2012
Added Glossary of Weather Terms page February 27, 2012
Installed Davis Leaf & Soil Temperature/Moiture Station #1 March 21, 2012
Completed NWS Skywarn Spotter training March 26, 2012
Installed CoCoRaHS ET Gauge June 5, 2012
Added Davis UV Sensor to ISS and UV graph to "Graphs" page. October 11, 2012
Installed additional two Soil Moisture Sensors and Soil Temperature Probes at 2" and 4". October 12, 2012
Added UV Index image and link and "Soil Station" page on web site. October 21, 2012
Added three IR Illuminators for all night updates on the GardenCam. November 14/26 ,2011
Added Snow Depth Gauge and third webcam for remote show depth reading. December 24, 2012
Added Live Gauges page to web site, February 22, 2013
Added WeatherCloud link October 19, 2014
Replaced two webcams December 2016
Removed Station Status page from web site August 2017 (software incompatible)
Removed WeatherBug affiliation (They dropped their WeatherBug Backyard program) November 2017
Replaced Evological Software's EvoCam with Ben Software's SecuritySpy December 2017 (EvoCam support dropped in 2015)
Replaced mid-2011 Apple iMac with new 27" iMac December 14, 2017
Replaced third Davis 24 hour solar-powered fan assembly with equivalent AC fan assembly October 2020
Replaced malfunctioning Davis Anemometer June 2022
Moved WeatherCat install from 2017 iMac to 2023 Mac mini M2 Pro April 15, 2023
Removed Soil Station Page and Hardware September 2024
avon-weather.com is privately owned and operated, and is not affiliated with the City of Avon, Ohio, or any business or governmental entity.This data is provided as a hobby from a personal weather station, and while regularly verified for accuracy, you should not base important decisions on this or any weather information obtained from the Internet. For the most current and accurate weather information for your area tune to your local TV or Radio Stations or your official National Weather Service forecast.
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