People are always asking us about the weather, so we though we'd make it easier to find out the current conditions at Mono Lake. The weather data is updated every ten minutes, 24 hours a day.
Where
does the weather information come from? Data is gathered
at the Mono Lake
Committee Information Center and Bookstore by a Davis Instruments
Weather Monitor II system and prepared for the Web with Virtual Weather Station software.
Here's a rundown of the important sensors:
First, we have an anemometer mounted about five feet above the roofline of the Mono Lake Committee building in Lee Vining to measure wind speed and direction.
Second, we have a temperature/humidity sensor mounted in a radiation shielded housing next to the official NOAA temperature sensor.
Third, the Davis base unit has an internal barometer which has been calibrated to sea level pressure.
Fourth, we have a precipitation gauge at ground level next to a National Weather Service Cooperative Observers precipitation gauge. Since most of our precipitation occurs in the winter, we need to be able to melt snow as it falls with a heater (purchased with donations from generous member Tom Melatis and hydrologist Peter Vorster).
The Davis unit also takes readings for indoor temperature and humidity, but they aren't particularly interesting on the Internet, so you won't see them here.
All data is stored in a data logger module in the Davis base unit.
Since late July 1998 we have been using
the free Virtual
Weather Station software to prepare the data for
this Web page. Graphs and
displays are created a jpg files, then every ten minutes Weather Web
sends out the files to our web server. The current
weather icon to the right may not always be correct (it is based on
METAR data from Mammoth Lakes), so
check the Webcams for the
current conditions.
SOME RELEVANT STATISTICS
The Committee's weather station is located at 6,800 feet
above sea level in Lee Vining, California. Highs and lows
are reset daily at 12:06 a.m. Lee Vining overlooks Mono
Lake, one of the oldest, most ecologically productive
lakes in North America. It sits at the base of the
eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at
37° 57' 23.148" North Latitude, 119° 07'
10.092"
West Longitude, in the Pacific Time Zone. The annual
precipitation is about 12 inches, and most of that falls
as snow during the winter. Generally, we are in a
sagebrush-filled high desert next to a pinyon-juniper
woodland on the flanks of the mountains. A nearby
riparian corridor shades the perennial Lee Vining Creek
as it exits the mouth of Lee Vining Canyon, about a mile
to the south. The prevailing winds are from the
southwest.
Please let
us know (
) your thoughts and suggestions on our live
data!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|