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Stroud is now part of the U.S.
Climate Reference Network
Real Time Weather Data
In June, 2006, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
installed and began operating a U.S.
Climate Reference Network site on the White Clay Creek watershed, just west
of the Stroud Center. The goal
of the USCRN is to monitor climate change far into the future using
state-of-the-art instrumentation within a very stable, well thought-out, and
centrally-run network of monitoring stations. The primary variables
monitored are precipitation and temperature with secondary variables of wind
speed, solar radiation, and infrared (ground) temperature. Initial
equipment and installation costs were funded through a generous grant from the
Davenport Foundation with site maintenance and upkeep covered by the USCRN
program.
One of the benefits of
having a USCRN site located at Stroud is that this network is operated on a
real-time basis. This is a benefit not just to Stroud scientists but to
all of our neighbors in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Stroud USCRN
real-time data page (listed as PA
Avondale 2'N in the table of
all currently operating USCRN stations) provides data for the previous 12 hours along with daily and
monthly summaries. As part of the real-time data reporting, you can select
plots showing data for just precipitation and temperature (from the above
reference link, scroll down the station link until you find 'PA Avondale 2N' and
then click on the plot symbol for this site) or at a separate link, you can view
plots for all the other data collected at a site, including instrument
diagnostic data. Please note that you will need Java
Software loaded on your machine in order to view these plots. A user can also download all available data, station
metadata, and other types of data reports for a given USCRN station by visiting
the "Reports" page
and making the appropriate selections.
Below is our
station. To see a detailed image of a "typical station" click here.
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