Rock-N-Water’s Very Own Weather Station
Weather companies, and local news stations obviously do not have weather stations located in every single city they represent. So when someone asks for weather in a city that they don’t have data for, they simply provide the data from the closest weather station and claim that it’s the weather for the location you requested. Some of the better forecasting sites will make some adjustments to the reported (or forecasted) weather to take into account that they really are not the same location.
While that system works well enough in most areas, there is a very specific problem when they do that in the Coloma/Lotus Valley where Rock-N-Water Christian Camps is located… it’s a valley! Somehow they think that the weather 12 miles away at the Placerville Airport is spot on for the weather in Lotus, after all, how much could weather conditions change in 12 miles? However, the Placerville Airport is ~2,600 feet above sea level, while Lotus is nearly 2,000 feet lower at only ~700 feet ((this can even be a little confusing for residents of Placerville, most of which live well below 2,000 feet themselves)).
What does 2,000 feet in elevation change mean for weather forecasts?
To start with, daytime temperatures can easily be 10 or more degrees Fahrenheit hotter or colder between the two locations. This is obviously not very helpful when you are packing for camp based on a weather forcast of the high 60’s, but encounter temperatures in the low 80’s instead ((or while I write this and the morning temperature at camp is 55°F while Placerville is showing a shivering 43°F)).
And what about snow? Virtually every year we get phone calls from concerned parents in early April wondering what extra gear they should bring or it they will need snow chains for the upcoming snow storm. Our office staff used to be very confused by these phone calls until we came to the realization that the parents were unknowingly looking at weather forecasts for the Placerville Airport – which with some inadequate tweaks gets reported as “Current Conditions in Lotus, California“. Snow at the Placerville Airport isn’t too uncommon of an occurrence, while snow at our camp in Lotus California only happens maybe once every 5-10 years ((and even then it usually falls only during January-Mid March)).
What have we done about this weather confusion?
And so, we are very happy, and a bit proud, to announce that we now have our very own weather station located right here at our Christian camp. It might take some time for the algorithms used to forecasts weather at camp to be updated to take our weather station into proper account. But at least we can rest assured that the current temperatures will be far more accurate than the random shot in the dark that we have been working with.
Want Lotus weather on your website?
We’ve got 3 weather logos from Weather Underground that we’ve tweaked to make sure they always report the weather from this local weather station. You are welcome to simply copy and paste the code below the icon you want into your own website for use.
<span style=”display: block !important; width: 180px; text-align: center; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”><a title=”Lotus, California Weather Forecast” href=”http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?apiref=491bba849a05779e&query=zmw:95651.1.99999&bannertypeclick=wu_macwhite” target=”_blank”><img alt=”Lotus, California Weather Forecast” src=”http://weathersticker.wunderground.com/weathersticker/cgi-bin/banner/ban/wxBanner?apiref=491bba849a05779e&bannertype=wu_macwhite&pwscode=KCALOTUS2&language=EN” width=”160″ /></a><a title=”Weather station located at Rock-N-Water Christian Camps in Lotus California” href=”https://www.rocknwater.com/”><img style=”display: none;” alt=”Weather station located at Rock-N-Water Christian Camps in Lotus California” src=”https://www.rocknwater.com/wp-content/uploads/logo-wide-color-transparent-270×98.png” width=”270″ /></a></span>
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