Weather Station, Deer and General Goings On

The Woodland Valley weather station is back in full operation. Hawley Botchford sent me this note a couple of days ago.

"The weather station is up and running fine. We learned when the electricity goes off the modem for the station has to be restarted. The other modem (wireless internet) comes on automatically. We thought the backup battery had gone out since snow was covering the solar panel but that was not the case. I bought a new battery so I'm ready when it does go out."
- Hawley

For those of you who don't already know you can get to the WV weather station by clicking through on the link to the Weather Underground on the right side of this blog. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you see all the local weather stations. The WV one should be at the top. I think it is excellent that we can get such an accurate reading of the valley's conditions at any time.

On another note, even though the snow has melted down making the road normal width again I would advise you to continue go more slowly than usual. I have seen quite a few herds of deer on Woodland Valley Road. They are there for several reasons. First, they can search for food in the ground that is beginning to reappear on the shoulder of the road. Second, when the snow is still deep up in the higher elevations and it has melted and crusted over on top the coyotes try and run the deer and get them to cut their legs so they will fall and they can hunt them more easily. (Sorry, I don't mean to be a bummer but that is what happens.) So the deer have been sticking to the roads. Remember to go slow. You don't need one of those bad boys coming through your windshield.

The highway department has been out all week cleaning up the mess along the road from the storms. They are chipping up everything that would be potentially hazardous to motorists. Many of you who haven't been to the valley in a while can expect to find a lot of tree limbs around your yard. Most people seem to have been very lucky though. I haven't heard of too much really serious damage.

The weather has been glorious all week. Sunny and in the 40s and 50s during the day. The snow has melted a lot. But there is still a lot laying around. The forecast for the weekend is for some serious rain. I am unclear whether I think that there is enough snow around for things to start flooding when it melts. I guess we will just have to wait and see. That's all for now folks.