Submitted by Debby Walters, Baldwin-Woodville School Forest Coordinator
WOODVILLE, WI – A new creature has landed on the prairie at the campus at Viking Middle School (VMS) in Woodville, Wisconsin. It was chosen as the site of a sophisticated weather station by Wisconet (Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet). This is a network of weather stations spread across the state. Currently there are 58 locations, and the intent is to have 80 stations installed by 2026.
The weather station provides more than 12 measurements every five minutes. The first stations were installed in 1985 and are found at the Hancock and Arlington Research Stations. The station at Viking was put in place this past August. The program is funded by USDA Rural Partnerships Institute and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
The unit at Viking was installed this fall of 2024, it was installed and set up and calibrated by a team from Wisconet. The battery is charged by solar power. The information it collects can be found at wisconet.wisc.edu/stations.html or just search for Wisconet and choose the stations tab. A sampling of the information gathered is the amount of rainfall, the soil temperature, soil moisture, temperature and windspeed. For accurate local weather data, this is the place to check!
