Administration

Communications

Culver-Stockton adds WeatherBug Weather Monitoring Station to learning recourses
Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Culver- Stockton College is now able to receive data used by weather forecasters, broadcast meteorologists, government agencies, and educational institutions across North America through their WeatherBug weather monitoring station. The station is mounted on the roof of the campus Science Center and continuously monitors 27 different weather parameters that input to a network of 8,000 other similar devices. It is also made available to the WeatherBug weather widgets that run on personal computers and cell phones.

The station includes a sensor that measures weather parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, heat index, barometric pressure, and dew point; a rain gauge that records hourly, daily, monthly and yearly rain measurements; and an anemometer assembly that reports current wind speed and direction, average wind speed, and maximum gusts.

Dr. Robert Sadler, professor of physical sciences in the division of natural & mathematical sciences, is the driving force in the acquisition of the weather station.

“The station will serve as a data warehouse for Culver-Stockton’s atmospheric science and related Natural & Mathematical Science courses,” said Sadler. “It will also be a resource for science classes in local public schools.”

Fully developed multimedia lessons are available online from the WeatherBug schools program to assist students in learning concepts from a wide range of science and STEM areas. A collection of interface and data processing tools are also available and allow computer programmers and web developers to create their own weather applications. The online weather center, an essential component of the system, will be integrated into the college’s website to provide local weather information, including radar and satellite maps, forecasts, and severe weather warnings for the entire community.

“This WeatherBug station allows us to provide cutting-edge learning resources for our science students,” said Dr. Indiren Pillay, associate professor of biology and chairperson of the natural and mathematical science division. “We add the weather station to our increasing list of new and upgraded student learning resources, including our DNA sequencing facility and genomics lab.”

The WeatherBug website is a source of complete weather information with no commercial content, a link to the WeatherBug monitoring information is available on the C-SC website at the top of the page under the resources tab. For more information about the WeatherBug station contact Robert Sadler at 573-288-6436 or e-mail rsadler@culver.edu.