Spring 2007

• New Orion LX™ Internet-Ready Weather Station
• Visitors include local Cub Scouts and Traveling Pilot
• Weather Dude Sing Along CD benefits hurricane victims
• Northwest Fire and Rescue Expo, May 18-19, Portland OR
• Cloud Crossword Puzzle

This newsletter is also available in Adobe Acrobat format

New Orion LX™ Internet-Ready Weather Station

Sample Website (Your name here)

The Internet-ready Orion LX Weather Station is our newest and most technologically-advanced weather monitoring system yet. With the compact, all-in-one Orion sensor head, the Orion LX features a Weather MicroServer offering FTP output, XML web service, and Internet browser user interface.

This means instantaneous, simultaneous, site-specific weather monitoring for any network user via Weather Master Network Software or URL.

The station can be connected to our proprietary LCD touch-screen Weather Display Console as well.

In a public safety scenario, the Orion LX can automatically send live incident weather readings directly to Emergency Operations Centers, Command Posts and other LAN-based emergency locations, to keep first responders, commanders, officers, and Emergency Managers simultaneously apprised of the current weather conditions at an incident scene.

Orion LX Weather Station System Diagram

User Interface Sample Screen

WeatherMaster Software with CAMEO/ALOHA Interface

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Cub Scouts Visit for March Weather Month

Cub Scout Troop 854 visited us in March to complete the requirements for their Weather Pin. March is Weather Month for the Boy Scouts.

Weather Pin Requirements:

1-Explain how clouds are made. Describe the different kinds of clouds – stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus, and cirrus – and what kind of weather can be associated with these cloud types.

2-Describe the climate in your state. Compare with that in another state.

3-Talk to a meteorologist about his job. Learn about careers in meteorology.

The boys were very attentive and interested and John did a great job. While we enjoyed root beer floats, the boys sang a song they had learned to help them remember the names of the different clouds.

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Come Visit if You're in the Neighborhood

Capricorn owner Tom Rum visited CWS this past fall when he was in the area on business. Tom is Senior Captain for Cooper Industries, piloting their corporate jet all over the world. (We are conveniently located near the Hillsboro Airport.) Thanks for the visit, Tom!

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Weather Dude Sing Along CD Benefits Hurricane Victims

Nick Walker, on-camera meteorologist for The Weather Channel®, doubles as the “Weather Dude,” bringing the science of meteorology down to an understandable level for children and students of all ages. His latest CD is “Sing Along with the Weather Dude.”

Complicated meteorological principles become simple in ten original songs such as “What Makes Rain,” “Thunderstorms,” and “Cloud Cover.” (See excerpts below.)Topics are expanded in the accompanying workbook with activities like making a rainbow or proving that there is water in the atmospheric air. The book is illustrated by Carl Strobe.

Additionally, the Weather Dude website offers corresponding pages for each song with even more details about basic weather phenomena and activities that children can try at home and teachers can use in class.

Retail price for the CD/Book set is $15.98. A portion of the proceeds benefits hurricane victims.

For more info and to purchase, visit www.wxdude.com.

Cloud Cover

They’re thin and high, those cirrus clouds mean weather’s looking fair

Made up of ice, they look so nice like strands of angel hair.

And stratus layers may hang low as a drizzle droplet falls,

Or show me puffs of cumulus like soft white cotton balls.

That’s the Way the Wind Blows

It might seem funny for you to think

The air we breathe can rise and sink.

It might be really heavy, it may be light,

But molecules of air have weight all right.

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NW Fire and Rescue Expo, May 18-19, Portland OR

This event is sponsored by the Northwest Fire Equipment Dealers Association and includes a free lunch.

Contact John Gerrish at CWS for free admission/lunch tickets. Email jgerrish@columbiaweather.com.

A list of exhibitors and more info is at www.northwestfirerescue.com.

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Cloud Crossword

Test your knowledge of cloud types and formations. If you need a little help, see the word bank below the clues.

ACROSS

1 General term for vertically developing clouds

2 Pouch shaped cloud that protrudes downward

7 A cloud whose base is on the earth's surface

8 General term for high clouds composed of ice crystals

9 Cloud produced from condensation from a rotating column of air

10 Wispy cirrus clouds resembling our equine friends

12 Saucer shaped clouds that form above the tops of mountains

13 A low, ominous cloud associate

DOWN

1 Thunderstorm cloud

3 Precipitation caused by a cumulus cloud

4 A precipitation forming cloud

5 Low level stratus cloud with distinct clumps

6 Cloud that is dependent upon a larger cloud for existence

9 Scud or cloud tags

11 Moisture from clouds

Word Bank: accessory, cirrus, cumulonimbus, cumulus, fog, fractus, funnel, lenticular, mammatus, marestail, nimbus, rain, shelf, shower, stratocumulus

Answer key

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