Day 103
Weather station
July 7th, 2010
I'm walking across America.
That's the idea, at least. I'm walking westward from New York City for nine months or so. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be in Oregon when the clock runs out. If nothing goes according to plan, maybe I'll end up in Peru or Mongolia or Pennsylvania. You can read all about the details of my trip if you're so inclined.
Email me at matt@imjustwalkin.com
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Here's my progress so far:
If Tower Is Wet – It’s Raining
If Tower Is Moving – It’s Windy
If Tower Is White – It’s Snowing
If Tower Is Hot – It’s Sunny
Seems I’ve seen simpler versions of this?
What about if you pee your pants from laughing at your post. What is that then? Just wet pants I guess?
Back in the day…Minneapolis, MN…the glowing weather ball on a TOWER…on top of a downtown bank, blinked out the weather…we learned it like this: RED WARMER WEATHER AHEAD…WHITE COLDER WEATHER IN SIGHT…GREEN NO CHANGE FORESEEN…COLORS BLINKING NIGHT OR DAY PRECIPITATION ON THE WAY…
If you want the jingle and I know you will, a lot better than mine above… http://www.mnhs.org/exhibits/weather/weatherball.htm
From my Dad is the simplest and most beautiful …from his years in the Navy in WWII in the Pacific…”Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning…Red sky at night, Sailors delight”
Just passing the time with Matt across the prairie…
BIG SKY !!!!!!
hehehehehehehe
I think I just heard someone say…Big Sky…
No Matt!!!
This is your cell tower.
I am so glad Larry The Cable Guy got your new rotary dial for your phone so quickly. I did not want to call Obama and have the communications Czar intervene with Verizon.
Glad you are safe.
That Larry the Cable Guy – he gets er done!
Jennifer
You are correct.
In some parts of the country they do say git her done. Meaning-get the thing done!
Did not mean to offend anyone!
Welcome bro….Dorinda almost faded away. Love the station, tower and whatever else it serves. I even see a video camera.
Why on Earth is there a video camera on this thing? To count the cows?
Had to laugh when I saw 69 comments on last picture. I kept coming back to see the count go up, thinking the same thing others said about having nowhere else to go until Matt posted again.
We are going to have meet at that brewery for our weekly therapy sessions once Matt stops walkin’.
Where? Uh oh Matt, they’re watching you! oooeeeooo! Aliens!
Matts Back, Matts back, Matts back====YEAH!!!!! I like that saying better than BIG SKY!!! Dorinda, I know a Lorinda. She lives in MN.
Neat. Doing genealogy work I came across a Lucinda and Lorinda( I think that was the other name). I think that they were twins, but don’t know for sure. It was kinda weird coming across that because my name is not a family name, it’s just something my Mom found in a book in the early 60’s. (I was born 1962).
Dorinda
I had a great grandmother named Lucinda.
So now, what does this weather station do exactly? If I’m seeing right there looks to be wires? This must communicate some how to somewhere to let someone somewhere know what the weather is out there in no where?Does that make sense to anyone?
It’s a weather station owned by the Montana Dept of Transportation. It communicates via phone lines or cell phones (they vary). The station measures temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation. It also measures whether the road is wet or dry, and the temperature of the surface of the road. It helps the MDT decide how to treat the roads in the winter time, and it really helps the National Weather Service in Glasgow know what is going on in an area.
Or maybe we missed the opportunity to ask Matt, “So, what’s the weather station say the weathers like Matt?” Sunny all the way I say.
That weather station reminds me of the moisture vaporator that Luke Skywalker was next to in the original Star Wars.
By the way, this is my first posting. However, I’ve been following your travels for a couple of months now. It’s very inspiring and something I would love to do myself some day.
welcome Starfoxx. Peace ! and join us in conversation now and then. Hobo Nation puts forth the welcome matt for you.
Pun intended .. but of course.
Montana has numerous weather stations located at strategic points along the highways. This is the Lindsey Divide station. It sends via cell phone weather and road data to maintenance offices. Below is the web site with current data.
http://rwis.mdt.mt.gov/scanweb/swframe.asp?Pageid=RPUStatus&Units=English&Groupid=302000&Siteid=302002&DisplayClass=Java&SenType=All
Automated weather observing sites such as this one are critical to forecasters and climatologists. They collect and transmit data from locations where there are no human weather observers. Automated weather observing equipment is actually far more widespread than one might think. At many airports, including those in large cities, automated observing equipment has become the norm.
Thanks for the reply Dorinda! Matt keep the beautiful pics coming you have a great eye.
You’re welcome and thank you for asking. I do have an unusual name and it’s okay. When I was little I didn’t like it so much because it was different and like I said the teachers would pronounce it wrong. But as I got older I “grew into it” I guess and now I love it because it’s special. So thanks and again you’re welcome. And as always, go Matt go!!!!
Would you just look at the gradient shades of blue??? Amazing!
Looks like that particular weather station (the one between Glendive and Circle called Lindsay Divide) hasn’t been reporting any data for a while… http://www.clarus-system.com/ClarusMap.html?lat=46.9&lon=-108.8&zoom=7
More info on these Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) and their use for surface weather can be found here: http://www.clarusinitiative.org/
Emergency Comm. Center. There was a couple in the Sierras that got lost in weather and ended up dropping into Nevada side of mtns. Once storm settled a bit they found a station like this one and interrupted the signal in a series of 3. Amazingly someone monitoring the stations info figured it out and an overflight to ck on the station spotted them. My buddy flew the Huey that spotted them.