Colchester Reef
In
July 1996, the first of two new VMC meteorological stations was established,
with the cooperation of the US Coast Guard station in Burlington, on the navigational
warning light tower at Colchester Reef. This permanent weather station was
established with funds from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the Lake Champlain
Research Consortium, and NOAA. The station provides state-of-the-art monitoring
for meteorological variables including wind speed and direction, air temperature,
relative humidity, barometric pressure, total solar irradiance, and water
temperature. This station came into existence through the coordinated efforts
of several groups of scientists studying the movement of atmospheric and water
pollutants in the Lake Champlain Basin. These data from Lake Champlain will
also benefit other groups such as the Champlain Water District, recreational
and commercial boaters, tourists, and the National Weather Service.
Data are automatically downloaded via radio frequency (RF) modems from the Campbell CR10X datalogger to a base station in the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory at UVM. Downloading of data occurs hourly with (4) 15 minute average records collected and stored during each downloading cycle. Data are available in an hourly or daily format from the VMC Data Manager. The National Weather Service provides an hourly updated summary of the most recent 15 minute average data on the World Wide Web at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/btv/data/reefdata.txt. An hourly summary of the most recent data is also provided by the Burlington Eco Info Project at: http://www.uvm.edu/~empact/weather.php3. Archived meteorological data from July 1996 to present are available online at the VMC web site.