“For millions of years, this world has been
a great gift to nearly everything living on it,
A planet whose atmosphere, temperature, air, water,
seasons and weather were precisely calibrated to
allow us – the big us, including forests and oceans,
species large and small – to flourish.

– Rebecca Solnit, writer, San Francisco

As predicted, rain fell in the Foothills. In great anticipation, I cleared the leaves and spider webs from the outdoor rain gauge. The inside display received new batteries.

Weather, especially the water producing variety, is serious business. Therefore, accurately measuring and recording each and every drop of rain in our drought-prone area becomes an obsession. Makes sense, with the relatively high population
and low water resources in the southwest. Our fascination and excitement over “wet weather” is well-founded. A letter from a CV Weekly reader reflects this sentiment:

“Hi, I enjoy your column. Have you ever written about the ‘weather station’ located at Rosemont [Middle School]? I pick it up on Weatherbug. It’s nice to have a location right here to give us local [numbers]. I’m curious who maintains it, etc.” It was signed by “a fellow weather-geek.”

I have also been curious. The latitude and proximately of this particular weather station to our house makes it valuable in comparing weather data. With prompting from “a fellow-geek,” my investigation began.

Too make a long list of emails short, I gleaned the following from the world’s best middle school and its principal, assistant principal and librarian. The said weather station, within a blue box, was installed in 1999 and sponsored by Mercedes. With only one day’s training almost 15 years ago, memories have dimmed.

I assumed the weather station was no longer used and was forgotten. Not so, according to staff.

“We love having it here,” I was told. It serves as an educational tool for science classes and the P.E. department checks temperatures. The “bigger kids” (non-students) enjoy the $9,000 weather instrument as well. Now I know what to ask Santa for!

Our rainfall total of last week was .16 inches. With an established dry air mass in place, the forecast in the upcoming days call for warm temperatures and intermittent gusty winds. Daytime highs in the 80s are expected, then cooling to the 70s by Monday and Tuesdays. Nights look to remain the same – around 55 degrees.  Fall is
coming along nicely.