Student installs weather station at Anthony

Published 5:32 pm Friday, November 25, 2011

Want to find out exactly what the weather is like atop the Anthony Lakes Ski Area this weekend?

Join Anthony Lakes’ ski lift line or go online.

A weather station with an online link has been installed on the top of Anthony Lakes by La Grande Weather Service, Inc. The station provides updated readings every 10 minutes for La Grande Weather Service’s website, www.lgdws.com.

Anthony Lakes’ current wind velocity, wind gusts, humidity, barometric temperature and temperature readings are available at the website.

In addition, all the readings for the past 48 hours are posted, plus weather forecasts for Anthony Lakes made by La Grande Weather Service.

All this is now available due in large part to the efforts of Tesmond Hurd, a La Grande High School junior.

Hurd is the meteorologist in charge for La Grande Weather Service, a non-profit organization run by volunteers in partnership with the Anthony Lakes Ski Area.

The weather station is the brainchild of Hurd, who created and installed it with major help from the Wallowa Avalanche Center and Peter Johnson, the general manager of the Anthony Lakes Ski Area, which opens Saturday.

Johnson said the weather station will be a valuable resource not only for skiers and snow boarders but for anyone planning to visit Anthony Lakes, including those coming in the summer.

Johnson and Julian Pridmore-Brown, a member of the Wallowa Avalanche Center’s board, said Hurd deserves much of the credit for the creation of the weather station.

“Tesmond did a fantastic job with it,” Pridmore-Brown said.

The Wallowa Avalanche Center provided major assistance for the project because it wants to help skiers and snow boarders going outside the boundaries of the Anthony Lakes Ski Area to be able to make good decisions concerning safety.

The backcountry area outside the ski area’s boundary is one people visit at their own risk since it is not checked for potential avalanche hazards. It is the responsibility of people going into this backcountry to determine if there is avalanche danger.

Pridmore-Brown said data from the new weather station provides individuals with valuable information regarding avalanche conditions.

“Our mission is to provide people the tools they need to make safe decisions about winter travel,” Pridmore-Brown said.

The wind velocity readings provided by the station are one of the tools Pridmore-Brown speaks of. He explained that wind velocity has a major impact on snow stability. When major amounts of snow are moved by wind, snow stability is affected, Pridmore-Brown said.

Those staying within the boundaries of the Anthony Lakes Ski Area should have no worries about avalanche danger. The Anthony Lakes Ski Patrol checks the ski area thoroughly for avalanche hazards each morning before the ski area opens and removes any avalanche hazards.

For example, all snow overhangs in the area are taken out, said Mike Gooderham, a member of the Anthony Lakes Ski Patrol.

The new weather station is atop an Anthony Lakes Ski Patrol building where on-duty ski patrollers monitor the mountain.

Gooderham said that the weather station will make it easier for patrollers to check the ski area for avalanche hazards.

“It is an asset,” Gooderham said.

One reason is the backlog of information on wind readings recorded at the station and then sent to the La Grande Weather Service website. This makes it easier for patrollers to find out things like if there were heavy winds overnight that may have made snow conditions less stable.

“Most heavy winds occur at night (at Anthony Lakes),” Gooderham said.

Gooderham noted that many other factors including temperature, wind, snow pack, slope and topography affect snow stability characteristics.

The U.S. Forest Service once had at least one weather station at Anthony Lakes, Gooderham said. However, the Forest Service removed them about 35 years ago after heavy winds damaged them.

Installation of the new weather station was completed Nov. 5, said Hurd, and its readings became available online last week.

Hurd, the son of Tami and Jerry Hurd, became interested in meteorology about five years ago and has studied it intensely online via the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Hurd set up a weather station on the roof of La Grande Middle School about three years ago, one which is still operating.