Well, it happened! Hoonah has two new weather stations on the side of Ear Mountain. The stations are located at 800 and 1,500 feet and are located on Sealaska Land – Thank you to them for allowing that work to happen there.
Installation of the stations went very smoothly and we were able to get the stations installed in about 7 hours total. This was aided by moving all of the gear to the top of the mountain via helicopter. The helicopter time was funded by the City of Hoonah – thank you to their partnership there! Having the helicopter was necessary due to gear weight and bulkiness. The video below shows off one of the stations as we got into the installation process.
What Data Are We Collecting?
The goal of these stations are to have better data on the waters supply of the Gartina Watershed and to collect data linked to salmon and deer. Based on that we decided to collect data on : rain, wind speed, wind direction, snow depth, temperature, humidity, and soil moisture. The soil moisture instruments are buried underground at 1 meter, 1/2 meter, and at the surface. The image shows off the stations and where each of the instruments are located.
It was decided early that we wanted to have real-time data with these stations. Fortunately they are located within cellphone range in Hoonah, so we hooked up stations with a cell modem and antennae to get the data each day. The whole station is paired to a battery and solar panel to ensure we have power every day of the year. There is a lot of “learn by doing” in this process however, so how rugged these stations demonstrate themselves to be and how well the power stays on will be something we learn as we go!
Some Challenges and Next Steps
This project is a learn-by-doing thing. We currently only have real-time data connection with one of the stations. We thought we had adequately checked station connectivity before we put it out, but that wasn’t true! After some call time with tech support the only way we can fix the issue is to bring a laptop to the station and reprogram it. So, we’ll be doing that this winter or next Spring depending on how the weather works out. The station is still collecting data, but we won’t be able to get the data until this spring.
Our next step is to build the data website where we can have all of this data shown publicly. Keep your eyes out for that! As always, reach out to us if you have questions!
This is exciting! Gunal’cheech Sealaska, City of Hoonah, and HIA for making Ear Mt. weather station a reality! Mary Johnson, Hoonah elder said that Ear Mt always told our weather – now it is official!