
I'm retired military, the U.S. Coast Guard. In the military I worked in radio communications as well as troposphere level aviation and marine weather forecasting and briefings. I also worked in space and troposphere level weather forecasting for some private weather forecasting companies, other federal government entities and in my consulting business. I retired in 2004 at age 47.
I was involved in professional
severe storm chasing and research between 1988 and 1996 in the Great Plains, as well as a NWS
certified Skywarn severe weather spotter (currently ID'ed as POL-10A) beginning in 1973.
During the eight year period I saw 29 tornadoes on the ground.
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My full parameter weather observing station is a model #6152 Davis Vantage Pro2 with model #6312 LCD console, model #7747 fan aspirated instrument shelter kit and model #6332 wireless wind vane/anemometer transmitter kit. It's tied to my personal computer with the Davis 6510SER data logger/PC interface. Wind data uploads occur in a 1 second interval, temperature related parameters a 10 second interval and barometric pressure a 60 second interval.
As far as software I use the excellent Weather Display v10.37N b27, Weather Display Live v5.04 and VP Live v1.1.10 I have a dedicated computer for the weather software. It's an old HP Pavilion 6635 running a 533 mhz Intel Celeron Pentium III processor with 512 megs of RAM, a 10 gig hard drive and runs the Windows XP Home SP3 OS. Shortly a new lap top will take the place of the HP.
The model #7747 fan aspirated instrument shelter kit comes with only one solar panel that produces 1.5 to 2 volts under optimum solar conditions. This underpowered the ventilation fan in my opinion, so I added a second 2 volt solar panel in series with the first one. I now get 3-4 volts and the fan does a much better job aspirating the shelter.
All weather observation parameters are in real time to the
Internet via a 20000 kbps download 5000 kbps upload speed permanent broadband connection.
My weather station is part of the partnership between the National
Weather Service (NWS) and private volunteer Citizens Weather Observer Program (CWOP) and is ID'ed as #AR692/NZ4O.
The weather observation data enters NOAA Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS)
in Boulder, CO, where it enters the weather
forecasting model's and 500 other end users.
Check out the yearly average flash density of lightning per
km2. The red and yellow colors represents the lightning strike bull's eye of the
western hemisphere.
A massive positive polarity lightning bolt taken recently in Australia
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By the way my hand held GPS receiver says that the ridge tops out at 280 feet not 260 feet AMSL and my weather station location 238 feet not 218 feet AMSL. My Kestrel 3500 digital altimeter says 222 feet. Which is accurate an old USGS topographic map or modern GPS or altimeter unit?! To further complicate matters there is an error on the topographical map. It shows a second area to my NNE at 230 or more feet when that location is actually on a slope well under 230 feet.
Several microclimates exist on and adjacent to my property. My property is approximately 1/3 acre in size, of which the Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station sits on the SW corner at an elevation of 218 feet ASL. The land elevation approximately 100 yards north and south of my property is approximately 2 feet higher. To the west of my property is an approximate 5 acre open meadow that sits approximately 2 feet lower and to my east a natural drainage corridor that once led to Scott Lake but has been altered into a closed pond that sit's approximately 3 feet lower. The property is wooded with five oak trees, one unidentified tree and one camphor tree, with the only clear spot being on the SW corner where the weather station is located.
During night time under radiational cooling conditions (clear sky, calm wind, low dewpoint) my weather station location runs approximately 5 degrees warmer than the surrounding region lowlands which are 100-150 feet lower. Basically the wind almost never stops blowing here on the hill at night time due to a Katabatic (down sloping) wind flow. The low spot's on the west and east side of my property have their own microclimates and run approximately 4 to 8 degrees colder when dry than my weather station location. The cluster of oak trees run approximately 5 degrees warmer than my weather station location but as I recently trimmed them all back dramatically the difference should be smaller during the next winter season.
As an example as follows are area minimum temperatures for early Wednesday morning February 7, 2007 under radiational cooling conditions.
44 deg. 218 ft My Location CWOP #AR692/KN4LF 5.7 miles South Lakeland Suburban
41 deg. 180 ft NWS CWOP #C5838 Providence North Lakeland Suburban
42 deg. 142 ft COOP NW Plant City Urban
41 deg. 141 ft FAA SW Lakeland Linder Regional Airport Urban
38 deg. 140 ft CWOP #C6582 Kathleen NW Lakeland Suburban
40 deg. 135 ft IFAS FAWN Balm Rural
39 deg. 128 ft ASOS FAA Bartow Municipal Airport Suburban
40 deg. 128 ft NWS CWOP #CW4013/KI4EFL East Plant City Rural
42 deg. 125 ft NWS CWOP #AP566/KQ4KX SE Lakeland Suburban
38 deg. 121 ft NWS CWOP #AS291/WC4PRM-9 Polk City NE Lakeland Rural
42 deg. 120 ft KFLLAKEL6 FDOF 5.8 miles South Lakeland Urban
40 deg. 069 ft IFAS FAWN Dover Rural
37 deg. 059 ft NWS CWOP #CW2979 Valrico Suburban
41 deg. 023 ft FAA Vandenberg Airport East Tampa
Suburban
During cold air advection conditions at
both day and night my weather station location temperature runs approximately 1-2 degrees
colder than the surrounding lowlands depending on the steepness of the lapse
rate. Being on an exposed ridge approximately
100-150 feet higher than the surrounding lowlands average wind speed is approximately
20% higher.
During subfreezing cold air advection events if
the wind direction has a NNE-NE component I can on occasion see lake effect snow
showers.
As an example as follows are area maximum wind gusts for Saturday June 2, 2007 as T.S. Barry traversed the region.
45 mph 218 ft My Location CWOP #AR692/NZ4O 5.7 miles South Lakeland
31 mph 154 ft ASOS FAA Plant City Municipal Airport
35 mph 141 ft FAA SW Lakeland Linder Regional Airport
36 mph 136 ft NWS CWOP #CW7718 Lakeland Linder Airport
39 mph 128 ft ASOS FAA Bartow Municipal Airport
33 mph 128 ft NWS CWOP #CW4013/KI4EFL East Plant City
28 mph 125 ft NWS CWOP #AP566/KQ4KX SE Lakeland
35 mph 144 ft ASOS FAA Winter Haven Gilbert
Airport
Also during cold air advection conditions when the wind direction is from the N-NE at both day and night my weather station location dewpoint runs approximately 5 degrees higher than the surrounding lowlands. This is due to being on the down wind side of Scott Lake.
I also see a bit of an enhanced Anabatic (up
sloping) wind flow at daytime primarily from the NNE-SE. During summer time
quite frequently a cumulus or cumulus congestus cloud will form over the
Lakeland Highlands (my location) part of the Lakeland Ridge.
Check out the WFLA Doppler radar image below. If you look due SSE of the word Lakeland and NNW of
the word Bartow you will see what looks like a blue and orange speck. It is a
lone cumulus cloud that formed over the highest part (266 feet) of the Lakeland
Ridge.

FLORIDA WEATHER FACTS
NZ4O 2009 DAILY LF/MF/HF/6M FREQUENCY RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION FORECAST
& ARCHIVE
SUBSCRIBE TO COL LF/MF/HF/VHF/UHF FREQUENCY RADIOWAVE
PROPAGATION EMAIL REFLECTOR
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My website conglomeration of
troposphere weather information and observations, solar,
space weather, geomagnetic data, as well as my 160 Meter (LF, MF, HF, VHF) Radio Propagation
Theory Notes and Daily
LF/MF/HF/6M Frequency Radiowave Propagation Forecast currently consists of 173
web pages and is growing weekly. This adds up to many megs of data and allot of
$$$ for leased space on a commercial web server. If you find the information
contained within useful and would like to donate some $$$ to assist in keeping
all of the data online click on the button below.


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WXUNDERGROUND SITE 10 MINUTE GRAPHIC WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR LAKELAND, FL #2
NWS CWOP SITE 5 MINUTE GRAPHIC WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR LAKELAND, FL #3
Weather Station #2-
Oregon Scientific RMR603HGA Wireless Temperature/Humidity, Airguide Aneroid Barometer,
Speed Tech Digital Barometer, Two NWS
Approved CoCoRaHs 11" Manual Rain Gauges, Lacrosse Digital Wind Vane/Anemometer
2005
NOV 2005 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
2006
JAN 2006 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
FEB 2006 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
MAR 2006 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
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2007
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SEP 2008 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
OCT 2008 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
NOV 2008 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
DEC 2008 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR
SOUTH LAKELAND, FL
2009
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2009 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR
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2009 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR
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2009 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR
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2009 DAILY CLIMATOLOGICAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR
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