A note on the Mt. Diablo Weather Reporting Station
The RAWS data collection station on Mt. Diablo is located at the top of the stone tower at the summit. The Wings Of Rogallo
club windtalker (wind information telephone robot: 925-838-9225) is above it by about ten feet.
We don't rely on the RAWS machine for wind strength and direction unless ours is broken.
It's sensors are not as accurate as our windtalker, because it wasn't really designed to provide the level of
information we like. As you can see on the web, that machine provides more overall data than ours,
but a lot of it is not that useful to us.
I've been told that one of the primary users of that data is the fire district, to determine fire danger.
One of the data items is "fuel moisture content".
That consists of a moisture sensor embedded in a tray of wood chips, sitting on top of the roof of the tower.
Before seeing it for myself, I assumed the data was procured in some other, more technical manner.
Robert Moore
2/10/2003