Rain, snow or shine, the TRU Geography department’s weather station grand opening will go ahead tomorrow as planned, said Geography professor Darryl Carlyle-Moses.

Construction on the new 550-bed on-campus student residence meant the old station had to be dismantled, he explained, and while the new one looks smaller, it’s actually got a lot more instrumentation in a lot less space, because of instrument upgrades due to advances in technology.

“With this new weather station, all the weather variables being measured are automated so they can be downloaded to a computer,” said Carlyle-Moses.

“This helps students because they don’t necessarily have to do manual readings, and even more important, the new system can show how weather patterns change over a period of time, whether overnight or over days or weeks. Before, we just got a ‘snapshot’ in time, depending on when we manually recorded the data.

“Everything that’s automated: wind speed, barometric pressure, relative humidity, temperature, etc, is an integrated system, and it will also support add-ons like a device to continuously measure soil water content, which we’ll use in the spring,” explained the geographer, a hydrology expert who came to TRU two years ago, and is very interested in applying his knowledge to forestry, ranching and other resource research in the region.

The public is invited to join in the opening ceremony, which will be held Wednesday, December 7th from 12:30 to 1:30 pm at the weather station, located outside the north side of the Arts and Education Building on campus. Tours and refreshments will be available after the 12:45 pm ribbon cutting.

For more information, please contact Dr. Darryl Carlyle-Moses at 828-5235 or by email.