Weather station for TCs?
Like most folks nowadays I have become spoiled by the cascading amount of information about the weather. Turn on any channel, click on hundreds of sources on the net, turn on the weather radio....and ...
Forum Discussion
67:
We had at one time traveled with a sophisticated weather station, however today, we have to a great extent replaced it with our Android cell phones & simple barometric pressure device & hand-held anemometer (we have several tools installed on our Androids that give us direct connection to Doppler radar, and mesoscale visualization, and weather satellite product).
We research & know the following to determine what kind of device would be pin-point effective for us to avoid injury or death due to anomalous climate events:
-what genre of life-threatening weather, and the geophysical landscape that could channel such weather to our locale.
A simplistic example of weather genre is: Kansas = tornado; East Coast shoreline = storm surge/hurricane; Southwest = flash flood; Southwest = killer wildfires; Pacific coastline = killer tsunamis. There are hundreds of variations in climatological genre (climate overlap) that are possible.
A simplistic example of geophysical landscape that could channel an anomalous climate event to your camper's doorstep are: setting up in a dry wash (knowingly or unknowingly); camping 1, 2, 3 meters above the mean high tide line along the Atlantic/Pacific; camping between two dry arroyos boxing you in; camping on ocean shoreline with only 1 or 2 escape routes; camping in a dry area conducive to wildfire with abundant fuel barriers to escape route(s); etc. Again, there are MANY variants to these geophysical scenarios, and several tools that could save our lives (eg. having an hand-held anemometer in fire country).
If we were putting ourselves in the Southwest, I would carry either/or a lightening detector (good for 20+ miles) and Doppler Android cell application on 2 phones (and, a GPS coverage map of cell tower effective range). And, I would have a LiDAR terrain model (and watershed coverage) to select a secure campsite.
If we were putting ourselves on the East Coast during hurricane season, we would carry a NOAA weather alert receiver (battery operated), a cell with backup with various satellite link Android apps, and a barometric pressure sensitive device. And, I would have a LiDAR coastal terrain model (and watershed coverage & storm surge GIS software with coastal zone loaded & emergency services escape routes loaded into my GPS & cell phones) to determine where/where not to camp, and how to escape.
If we were putting ourselves in Kansas/Midwest during spring/summer, we would carry a cell and backup, with mesoscale meteorological Doppler application, and NOAA weather receiver. And, an escape route from every night stop going in every direction, and a concrete bunker at every night stop to take shelter in if need be.
....etc, etc.
On edit: feel free to cherry-pick :B
Good luck,
S-
We had at one time traveled with a sophisticated weather station, however today, we have to a great extent replaced it with our Android cell phones & simple barometric pressure device & hand-held anemometer (we have several tools installed on our Androids that give us direct connection to Doppler radar, and mesoscale visualization, and weather satellite product).
We research & know the following to determine what kind of device would be pin-point effective for us to avoid injury or death due to anomalous climate events:
-what genre of life-threatening weather, and the geophysical landscape that could channel such weather to our locale.
A simplistic example of weather genre is: Kansas = tornado; East Coast shoreline = storm surge/hurricane; Southwest = flash flood; Southwest = killer wildfires; Pacific coastline = killer tsunamis. There are hundreds of variations in climatological genre (climate overlap) that are possible.
A simplistic example of geophysical landscape that could channel an anomalous climate event to your camper's doorstep are: setting up in a dry wash (knowingly or unknowingly); camping 1, 2, 3 meters above the mean high tide line along the Atlantic/Pacific; camping between two dry arroyos boxing you in; camping on ocean shoreline with only 1 or 2 escape routes; camping in a dry area conducive to wildfire with abundant fuel barriers to escape route(s); etc. Again, there are MANY variants to these geophysical scenarios, and several tools that could save our lives (eg. having an hand-held anemometer in fire country).
If we were putting ourselves in the Southwest, I would carry either/or a lightening detector (good for 20+ miles) and Doppler Android cell application on 2 phones (and, a GPS coverage map of cell tower effective range). And, I would have a LiDAR terrain model (and watershed coverage) to select a secure campsite.
If we were putting ourselves on the East Coast during hurricane season, we would carry a NOAA weather alert receiver (battery operated), a cell with backup with various satellite link Android apps, and a barometric pressure sensitive device. And, I would have a LiDAR coastal terrain model (and watershed coverage & storm surge GIS software with coastal zone loaded & emergency services escape routes loaded into my GPS & cell phones) to determine where/where not to camp, and how to escape.
If we were putting ourselves in Kansas/Midwest during spring/summer, we would carry a cell and backup, with mesoscale meteorological Doppler application, and NOAA weather receiver. And, an escape route from every night stop going in every direction, and a concrete bunker at every night stop to take shelter in if need be.
....etc, etc.
On edit: feel free to cherry-pick :B
Good luck,
S-
