Wanna be a weatherman?
By Mike Cox MWC423@bellsouth.net

New monitoring equipment being installed at Flotilla Island on Lake Murray

Each morning, people all over the Midlands plan their day around what Ben Tanner or Tim Miller says. The local TV stations rely on the weather forecast to carry them to viewer popularity. The ability to gather weather specific data has improved greatly in the last few decades.

New technologies have resulted in local TV weathermen becoming stars, and people are more weather conscious than ever before. The idea of buying radios with wall to wall information or a television channel devoted entirely to weather broadcasts was inconceivable a couple of decades ago.

The forecast so confidently shared each day isn't something the meteorologist created but is based on information gathered by the National Weather Service and shared with anyone who wants it.

Most airports have some type of weather observing equipment. There is also wind and temperature sensing equipment on the shores of area lakes. This equipment is undergoing some updating that will improve reliability and make more accurate information available to the National Weather Service website.

According to NWS spokesperson Leonard Vaughan, recurring problems with the existing system will be corrected with installation of the new sensors. Old units relied on electricity to record the wind data and a phone line to send the information.

New units are powered by the sun and transmit data by satellite. The monitoring equipment for Lake Murray is located on Flotilla Island off Johnson Marina Road. Information recorded includes wind speed and direction, speed and frequency of gusts, and temperature.

Additional upgrades are being made to facilities at Lake Marion, Lake Moultrie, Lake Wateree, and the co- op at Lake Greenwood. When the upgrades are complete, the Weather Service website will be even more impressive than it is now.

Anyone wanting to play meteorologist can go to www.weather.gov and gather information about any location. Specific cities are identified by their airport call letters; Columbia is CAE. Add a slash and those letters to the web page and you can get up to the minute information about any location in the Midlands.

Everyone is encouraged to use the weather service website and the available information is impressive. A fisherman can click on any area of Lake Murray and get wind speed and direction. A construction worker can find out the temperature and the forecast for any specific location just by clicking on a particular spot on the map.

Forecasts are available to anyone with a computer and all relevant data is easy to find. When the new wind sensing equipment is up and running, even more real time information will be available and anyone can plan their outdoor activities based on projected tendencies.

TV weather persons use the same data anyone else can gather. They have programs to help forecast what may occur and of course they have those little magic remotes to switch screens during the telecast. But anyone who desires to can become a knowledgeable, informed weather forecaster. You are on your own trying to develop the unique personality quirks many of them have.