While TV stations talk about the weather in Dallas, Fort Worth or Tyler, Cedar Creek Lake area residents want to know the weather here at the lake!
Now, thanks to a growing number of Internet-enabled personal weather stations that ring the lake and surrounding area, it’s easy to check the current weather near your favorite spot. These stations stream current conditions to the Weather Underground Internet site every few seconds. The data is displayed on a customizable Google map of the area. You can then click on the station to receive current and historical data from that weather station.
For some time, there have been only three stations on the shoreline, in Trinidad, Tool and this writer’s station in Gun Barrel City’s Harbor Point. This year, several members of the Cedar Creek Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) deployed stations on the lake near Payne Springs (in Three Harbors and Del Mar) and Eastwood Island in Gun Barrel City. Another member’s station west of the lake in Tolosa just came online.
In April, the radio club also helped set up and now maintains a weather station at the Gun Barrel City central fire station. The weather station was purchased by the city as part of a project to establish an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The CCARC donated ham radio equipment for the EOC, and now mans the station during severe weather events, participating in the National Weather Service’s SKYWARN program.
To view these weather stations from a PC or Mac, go to the Weather Underground.com Wundermap screen. Click on any of the weather station icons on the map for more information. Once there, you can also click on that Station’s ID for a full screen of current and historical information on that station.
Smartphone and tablet users can download free Weather Underground applications that include the ability to save a favorite weather station for one click access.
In addition to current weather, the other info on everyone’s mind is the current lake level; that information is updated daily here in the left column of cedarcreeklake.com. If you want even more detail, the US Geological Service website hosts a lake level graph updated hourly: see it here.
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