Weather is so important for all of us living on Guam. It has a big impact on our daily lives. More so because we live in the tropics and we see the extremes of the weather. Fishermen need to know if it will be safe to go out fishing, beach-goers need to know if it will be a nice day at the beach and we all need to know if we are going to need an umbrella for the day. Well the Master Pirate himself, Jeff, at Jeff's Pirates Cove has got your backs. He has not just a state of the art weather station but a "National Award Winning" weather station at that.
For all you techies out there, here is the breakdown:
The weather station is a Davis Instruments top of the line wireless weather station that transmits every couple of seconds to the base station located in Jeff’s office at the Cove. It was installed right around December 2005 and started capturing data in January/February 2006.
The weather station has numerous instruments. They are situated in an open enclosure on the Jeff's Pirates Cove compound. There is also a large pole with an anemometer or wind gauge on the top and two manual rain gauges that Jeff reads daily.
Here is a photo of the weather station enclosure showing some of the instruments. These Davis instruments are a wireless weather station with a versatile sensor suite that combine a rain collector, temperature and humidity, UV, solar radiation sensors and an anemometer into one package.
The Davis weather station itself which contains the sensors to capture data for the various weather and atmospheric conditions...
Rain Gauge
Anemometer or wind gauge...
Side view of the Davis weather station...
The base is a Davis receiver connected to a workstation computer running various software but the majority of the work is done by Virtual Weather Station software designed for Personal Weather Station or PWS’s.
The software manages incoming data from the station and produces various image products that are uploaded to the weather server at set times and also updates three off-site storage sites with meta-data.
These sites include the Weather Underground or WUG which is like Accu-Weather but more for PWS data gathering. Another site, spawned by Ham Radio operators a long time ago and has transitioned over to the internet, is called the Civilian Weather Observer Program or CWOP, and a European site called AWEKAS for Automated Weather Map System.
Did I not mention Award Winning?? Yes Jeff's weather station, coupled some of his other activities, were given "National Recognition" by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the Unitied States Department of Commerce...
OK so let's look at some of the other great info and graphics that you will see on the Jeff's Pirates Cove Weather Page...
Area satellite analysis...
Tide info...
Wind speed info (very important for boaters, wind and kite surfers)
Conditions, Warnings and other info buttons. Quite comprehensive!!!
A great storm and typhoon tracker...
and there are numerous other visuals and links depending on what you are looking for!!
As you can see, this weather station has it all plus more as they say!!! All this at the expense of the Pirate himself because he feels it is needed. Of course Jeff has to stay on top of things just in case some of his Pirate buddies want to know if it's safe to come to the Cove to Party!!!!
And let us not forget that Jeff also has his Live View Cam so you can visually see what the weather conditions are like at any particular moment. Here is a view of what you can expect:
But like any great Pirate Captain, Jeff has amassed a great crew to help him keep everything ship-shape. And the Pirate has his secret weapon who was instrumental in putting this all together. He is the 1st Mate himself, Uncle Mort!!!!
Uncle Mort, the man behind the JPC Weather Station, is the ramrod in charge (RIC) of the weather station. Who is Uncle Mort? Well here is a little bio on Mort:
A classmate of Jeff's from GW Class of 67 and a life-long surfer and water bug here on Guam, Mort has many talents and skills. Here is his electronics background....
Electronics Apprentice/Mechanic at SRF in late 60’s, Electronics Technician at NCTS in the 70’s/80’s, Telecommunication Specialist at NPMOCW/JTWC in the 90’s (weather center Nimitz Hill until they closed due to BRAC), short period at CNM on the Admiral’s Staff N6 group before going back to NTCS as a Telcom Spec doing Long Range Plans for the Base Communications (Navy phone system) where he finally retired. And yes, he can BBQ and Bushcut also!!!
Mort has been working with Jeff since ever since!!!
Here is proof that it's not easy working with Jeff at Jeff's Pirates Cove. Weather Station Maintenance is exhausting work!!! You go Mort!!!
And if you are interested in more information on what makes this award-winning weather station tick, here are a couple of links to help feed your curiosity:
Davis Instruments Weather Station Info
Virtual Weather Station Info
These links can be found on the JPC Weather Site page in the left hand column down near the bottom.
So if you need weather info and need it fast, we think that the Jeff's Pirates Cove Weather Center site has what you are looking for.
Don't forget to check it out. And while you're at it and looking for a bite to eat and a good time, come on down to the Jeff's Pirates Cove Resort located in the beautiful southern village of Ipan Talofofo...
You'll be glad you did!!
Hurry on down now...
The Pirate Awaits You...
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