OARDC Weather Information

Instrumentation:

    Since the weather stations were established in support of agricultural research, instrumentation was designed to provide the data elements most critical for this purpose.  Each station is equipped with a DC-powered Campbell Scientific datalogger and a DC-powered modem to provide data storage and transmittal to the central computer storage facility on the Wooster campus of the OARDC.  Data are automatically retrieved daily around 6:00 am, EST and are available shortly after that.  The dataloggers are able to retain almost one month of hourly data in the situation that telephone line problems prevents daily retrieval.

    Instrumentation includes sensors to measure global solar radiation at 6 m; temperature and relative humidity in a non-aspirated shelter at 1.5m; soil temperatures at 5 and 10 cm below a bare soil surface; wind speed and wind direction at 5 m, and precipitation at 1 m.

Reports:

Two types of reports are generated, daily and hourly. Description of the reports are below:

Daily (field title and description). All measurements are in English units.

Date – calendar date
Precip – total liquid precipitation (melted in case of ice or snow) in inches
Max Air Temp– the highest temperature recorded in degrees Fahrenheit
Record Max Temp, Year– the record highest recorded temperature for this date, and the year of the record maximum
Min Air Temp – the lowest hourly reading for the day
Record Min Temp, Year– the lowest minimum temperature recorded for the date, and the year of the lowest recorded temperature
Avg. Air Temp. – the average of the 24 hourly readings for the day. Note:
Except on rare occasion this will not be (max+min)/2
Max, Min, or Avg. Relative Humidity – as %, the maximum, minimum, or average amount of moisture in the air compared to the
maximum possible at the current temperature
HDD - Heating Degree Days: how many degrees below 65 Fahrenheit the average temperature was for the day
CDD - Cooling Degree Days: how many degrees above 65 Fahrenheit the average temperature was for the day
GDD - Growing Degree Days: how many degrees above 50 Fahrenheit the average temperature was for the day
GDD -Mod. Sine Wave - Growing Degree Days calculated using the modified sine wave method.  Formula and definition.
Solar Rad – Solar radiation recorded in Langleys. 1 Langley = 1 cal/cm**2
Avg Wind Dir – the average direction of the wind: 0,360=N; 180=S
Avg Wind Speed – the average of the 24 hourly wind speeds in miles/hour
Max Wind Speed – the maximum hourly wind speed. Note wind gusts are not recorded
Time Max Wind Speed - time that maximum wind speed occurred. Midnight = 2400
Max, Min, or Avg. 2” soil temp – the maximum, minimum, or average soil temperature in degrees Fahrenheit 2” beneath the surface
Max, Min, or Avg. 4” soil temp – the maximum, minimum, or average soil temperature in degrees Fahrenheit 4” beneath the surface

Hourly (field title and description). All hourly measurements are Metric.

Date – calendar date
Hour – hour of the day. Midnight = 2400
Precip – liquid precipitation in mm
Air Temp – temperature of the air in degrees Celsius
Solar Radiation – solar radiation in kilowatts per square meter : kw/m**2
Note: valid only for daylight hours. Sometimes bright moonlight or other events may cause spurious night-time recorded values.
Humidity -- % relative humidity
5cm Soil Temp – temperature of the soil at 5cm depth in degrees Celsius
10 cm Soil Temp – temperature of the soil at 10 cm depth in degrees Celsius
Scalar Wind Speed - wind speed in miles per hour, disregarding direction
Vector Wind Speed - wind speed in miles per hour, taking direction into effect
Wind Direction - wind direction, north is 0 or 360 degrees, south is 180
St. Dev. of Wind Direction - overall variation of wind direction in degrees