This web site features current conditions and archived weather data from my home weather station in Oakland, NJ. The station is located at an elevation of 272 feet in a valley, with ridges running from southwest-northeast to the west and east.

Here is the location of the weather station (Represented by the small red plus sign in the right-center of the map; topo map courtesy of Topozone). Below the map are some important points about the location's microclimate.


-The Prevailing wind direction for most of the year is Southwest, which is consistent with the southwest to northeast orientation of the Ramapo Valley. The strongest sustained winds (Relative to gusts) are from the SW, and SW winds are usually the most consistent for wind direction.
-The strongest wind gusts are usually from the North or Northwest. Downsloping from the Ramapo Mountains is likely a contributing factor to these gusts. Sustained winds can also be strong from the N or NW, but usually not as strong as those from the SW. The Prevailing wind direction is usually N or NW during the Spring, especially during the month of April.
-Morning lows are often colder than surrounding areas, because the valley location is prime for radiational cooling.
-Humidity and dew point are usually a bit higher than surrounding areas- another factor of the valley location.

Weather Station Hardware & Software

The Weather Station in use is a Wireless Davis Vantage Pro 2 with Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield. It measures atmospheric qualities such as temperature, wind speed, dew point, humidity, air pressure, wind chill, rainfall, and more. The anemometer is the one portion of the station which is separate from the others, as it is mounted alone, 3.5' above the roofline (About 30' above ground level). The anemometer transmitter kit, which sends wind data to the VP2 console, is connected to the anemometer. The rest of the sensors, including temperature, humidity, and rainfall, are located in the ISS, or Integrated Sensor Suite. It is located on a fence about 7' above ground level.

The weather station reports wirelessly to the VP2 console, which displays data generated by the station. The ISS and the Anemometer Transmitter Kit both transmit their data to the console. Attached to the console is the Davis DataLogger, which is connected to the computer via a serial cable.

On the computer, a weather station software program, called WxSolution (Made by Thunderhead Technologies), processes the weather station data. It generates daily, montly and yearly reports called Local Climatological Data reports (LCD), along with uploading weather information to the Citizen Weather Observer's Program and this site every 10 minutes. Another program, WUHU (Weather Underground HeavyWeather Uploader), uploads the station's data to Weather Underground. A third program, Davis WeatherLink, is used as a source of backup data. A program called VirtualVP is used so that more than one weather station software program can be open and connected live to the weather station at the same time.

Pictures of the Weather Station


Anemometer; looking SW(Larger version of above picture)
Picture w/description of sensor functions
Close-up of the Anemometer Mounting (Looking West)
Integrated Sensor Suite (Looking SE)

Timeline of Weather Station Installation

12/30/05: Anemometer installed 3.5 feet above roofline, 30 feet above ground level.
1/1/06: Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS) installed 7 feet above ground.
1/6/06: Anemometer Transmitter Kit installed so the anemometer can report to the console.
2/6/06: Datalogger arrives from Davis, and is installed. WeatherLink software is also installed.
2/7/06: Station begins reporting to Weather Underground through WeatherLink, under the station ID of KNJOAKLA6.
3/17/06: Station begins uploading to CWOP/APRS through WeatherLink, under the station ID of CW5346.
3/19/06: WxSolution is first used. It takes over the uploads to both Weather Underground and CWOP/APRS, replacing WeatherLink.
4/13/06: First day of continuous weather reporting to the website (At the temporary host location).
5/1/06: First day of weather reporting to the new, permanent host location.
6/7/06: Serial Datalogger arrives from Davis to replace the USB Datalogger, which was faulty and had frequently resulted in a loss of communication. Serial datalogger is known for its better reliabilty than the USB version.