Climate data in the classroom

New technology installed at two UGA locations will provide real-time weather data and early warnings for severe weather.

Donated by WeatherStem CEO Edward Mansouri,the stations were installed in the State Botanical Garden and on the main campus in early August. The station links to the web and provides tools such as text alerts for changing weather conditions and forecasts. Users can also replay time-lapse videos from attached webcams.

Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor and director of UGA's Atmospheric Sciences Program in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, worked with Mansouri to have the station in place before the start of the fall semester so that he could use the data in his class on urban climate.

"From a research standpoint, it is rare to have a good network of weather observations in an urban area like Athens," Shepherd said. "Typically, weather stations are in more rural, open-space areas or airports. There's also potentially a broad benefit for our emergency preparedness and weather warning efforts in the community."

The WeatherStem also includes a Football Weather Almanac that can be used to pull up the weather information for any UGA home game since 1954.

In addition to the stations at the State Botanical Garden and atop the geography-geology building, UGA Emergency Operations hope to add stations to other areas of the main campus and to the extended campuses to make them more useful for research, teaching and promoting emergency preparedness. Our campus continues ot grow in instructional, research and public service capailities by the year. Redefining the idea of a major research university is an outcome of pursuing these missions with zeal, creativity and curiosity. UGA works for everyone.

Image courtesy of Weather STEM and the UGA Atmospheric Sciences Program.