You know what they say about ­Victoria… if you don’t like the weather wait five ­minutes

>> Chris Ward

The weather can influence so many aspects of our day-to-day lives, from how we dress, to the way we plan our ­recreational ­activities, our state of mind and even household finances.

There certainly isn’t any shortage of weather related information available via the Internet or other electronic media. ­However these reported conditions are typically ­compiled from hourly observations made at meteorological stations located at airports, harbours or light houses some ­considerable distance away and as such may not ­accurately reflect the actual conditions outside your front door.

At one time or another most of us have probably wondered exactly how hot (or cold as the case may be) is it? How hard is it ­raining or, should I be worried about the wind chill?

Wonder no more because ­Fernwood now has it’s very own and very local ­neighbourhood meteorological ­station located on the roof above the ­Cornerstone Building. The station continuously ­monitors weather and atmospheric ­conditions like ­barometric pressure, ­temperature, wind speed and direction, rain rate, humidity and wind chill factor. The measurements are ­transmitted to a data logger at the remote base station in Victoria VeloTech, ­processed and then uploaded to the Fernwood NRG website. The data is updated every ­minute so the observed conditions are virtually in real time. With a little research and some ­practice, you can even make your own weather predictions using the ­available data.

You can check out the Fernwood weather feed at fernwoodnrg.ca/weather.

We are now taking applications for a neighbourhood weather ­person. ­Looking for ­experience in weather reports and ­forecasting the weather. Must have own suit.