SuttonNet's Weather Station

Our weather station began operation in mid 2017. It records, stores and publishes online the weather conditions in our location: Long Corner Creek valley in the locality of Bolaro, near Adaminaby NSW.

It's been a long cherished dream of Bill's: his own weather station, set up to proper measurement and recording standards.

Weather is diverse across different parts of the Monaro due to the influence of mountains, hills and lakes. It can be extreme, with heavy frosts or snow. Yet the entire Monaro - Snowy Mountains district is covered by only a few Bureau of Meteorology weather stations.

Why a weather station?

Bill loves weather. Clouds, storms, satellite images, barometric charts, historical records. It's a love he can usefully share with friends, local enterprises and visitors.

Our nearest official station is 65 km away. It is often at variance with conditions around Adaminaby. So community groups, businesses and individuals have set up their own weather stations. Farmers, fishermen, tourism operators and others need accurate local reports.

Why on SuttonNet's website?

Our weather reports are a community service. Nonetheless, they get our business's name known and draw people to our website. Some who read the weather page might decide to spend with us. They know there's an active local web developer and they can easily find our website and help others to find us.

The weather station became a catalyst for the task that would "never" get done: to upgrade and fully rewrite our old website. That's another bonus.

Weather station specs

Equipment: Davis Weather station: Wireless Vantage Pro 2 Fan Asp, Weatherlink Serial, Anemometer transmitter kit with repeater to transmit data to our house, all purchased from Davis Instruments Australia.

Wind: anemometer on a 10m pole, around 1100m above sea level. This location was chosen because it is well exposed to all directions.

Temperature, rainfall & humidity: recorded at 1066m, c 200m from the anemometer.

It's legitimate to record wind and temperatures in separate but nearby locations. Here, it's the most practical solution. Temperatures at the top of the slope (where the wind is measured) are significantly higher than for the rest of our property and the valley we live in. Lower areas are sheltered from one direction or another by the shape of the land, and could not be used to accurately record wind movements.

Whenever there's green grass here, our weather station meets the standards for obtaining accurate measurements. That's not achievable in late summer, nor indeed in winter when frosts kill leaf growth; nor after a snowfall. But weather stations all over the world face such problems.

What about your website?

Maybe the local weather isn't your chipped enamel mug of billy tea. Can your interests serve your customers and your business online?

A human touch to your website helps to connect with customers and create trust. It can help draw new visitors to your website and draw people back to visit it again.

Mountains - photography - your garden - surfing - music - cricket - fishing - entrepreneurship.... there's probably something you love, that site visitors will also love to watch, listen to, read about and be inspired by.

If you're an artist or photographer, you can light up your entire website with your line drawings or evocative photos.

Link to an 'interest' webpage from Facebook, other social media or emails to your customers. Link from the 'interest' webpage to specific business webpages: eg via special offers, 'Do you know', 'Visit our online shop', photos of new products.

If you have a lot to share: you can create a new website, with links to and from your official business site. Who knows, your passion set loose online might grow into a new money earner that eclipses your original business.

You will naturally want to update these pages. It'll be easy to log into Bizazz and add new content about your favourite subject. While you're there, make some quick changes to your other webpages too.