About Jerry

I got interested in weather as a kid when a storm system came through Des Moines one summer day and the temperature dropped about 25 degrees in less then an hour. It had been hot and I'd checked the temperature which was probably around 85 degrees. We kids had been playing baseball in the backyards and as we ran for shelter when the storm hit I remember checking the thermometer because it was getting cold quick. It dropped to about 60 degrees and I was just fascinated by that. That interest held up and though I did not become a meteorologist I have remained interested and fascinated all my life. Before moving to Arizona Sue and I used to go storm chasing in central Iowa.

Arizona has so many micro-climates that it's hard to get the correct weather for the area you live in unless it's Phoenix, Prescott or Flagstaff. I was frustrated by going to various weather sites like The Weather Channel and getting a current temperature reading of 72 for instance when I knew it was 93. The data was coming from Flagstaff or Prescott. I decided it would be great to know what the weather was in my own backyard, literally, so the decision was make to buy a weather station. A few weeks of research convinced me that Davis was far and away the best choice.

My weather station is Davis Vantage Pro2 made by Davis Instruments in Hayward, CA. Davis weather stations are world renowned and the Vantage Pro 2 is currently their top of the line station. They are used worldwide by amateur meteorologists like myself, large agricultural farms, wineries, mining operators, etc, and there are even two Davis weather stations operated by Stanford University in the Antarctic. I installed mine last July 27th.

There is a vast internet complex called The Weather Underground where government agencies, private organizations like those listed above, and private individuals display the weather data from their stations. Each weather station has it's own web page. To find weather stations in a particular area of interest you just type in the zip code, city, state or country and you get a list of weather stations in the area. You can choose to display the station of your choice by clicking on the link. Obviously I have a page on the Weather Underground site.

In addition the data from my weather station is sent to the National Weather Service along with data from other personal weather stations who volunteer it and who can meet quality control standards through the Citizens Weather Observer Program (CWOP).