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Weather confusion cleared up
By Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published November 30, 2009
National Weather Service meteorologists made a trip to Paris Friday to clear up confusion about rainfall totals for this area, and to assure everyone there is an official weather reporting station in Lamar County.
“We have and will be using Texas Department of Transportation as our official weather reporting station,” said William F. Bunting, National Weather Services NSSAL meteorologist in charge.
Bunting said there also is a Federal Aviation Agency automatic weather reporting station at Cox Field airport that submits information to the National Weather Service and is linked to the National Weather Service Web site.
“That FAA site gives rainfall at the airport by the hour,” Bunting said. “And if you total the hourly readings incorrectly, you will get twice the amount of rain that has fallen.”
The Paris News has used that site to obtain rainfall totals since the beginning of 2009.
“It gives the rainfall amounts at different times during the hour, but records the accumulation only once during that hour,” Bunting said. “If a person adds all the rainfall amounts and the accumulation, he will have twice the amount of rainfall that has been recorded.”
Bunting said the National Weather Service does still need many more weather reporting sites in Lamar County.
“We can use all the reporting from cooperative observers we can get,” he said. “We have several who report conditions to us now, but we could use many more.”
Bunting said the U.S. Corps of Engineers site at Pat Mayse Lake is one of the cooperative observer stations, but individuals can be a weather reporting site.
“People may become a volunteer by signing up on our Web site at www.cocorahs.org,” he said. “On-line training materials are available, with some local training sessions in the area.”
Those who volunteer will post their daily observations on the CoCoraHS Web site, and observations are immediately available in the map and table form for scientists and the public to view.
“By providing accurate measurements, observers are able to supplement existing networks and provide many useful results to scientists, resource managers, decision makers and other users,” the Web site reports.
Bunting said the National Weather Service can never have too many cooperative observers.
“We do know what we are doing in Lamar County and in Paris,” he said. “We do have an official weather station, and it is keeping official records.”
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