Star Valley Weather Web Site Tutorial
Starvalleyweather.com was developed in 2011. It has been gradually improved over the past 9 years.
The primary goal of the web page is to provide the residents of Star Valley Ranch and its surroundings, along with any visitors or interested persons, one stop shopping for all the weather information they may need for a myriad of uses.
Star Valley, due to its location with respect to several mountain ranges and in the path of many of the storms that cross the country along with its rather high elevation, poses a real challenge to anyone attempting to forecast its weather.
Highlighted in Red in the following discussion are links to features of the web site.
Three weather station were established in Star Valley in 2010. They are located at Thayne and Etna Elementary schools as well as in the Town of Star Valley Ranch on the Public Works building. They have provided more or less a continuous weather record since the Fall of 2010. The stations are built by Davis Instruments and have been and continue to provide their data online.
A primary purpose of the weather stations at the schools is to stimulate student interest in not only weather, but science in general. All three stations observe temperature, humidity, winds, pressure and both frozen and liquid precipitation. The Thayne Station has additional sensors that measure soil temperature and moisture at three depths: just below the surface, 2 feet and 4 feet. The Thayne station also measures both solar insolation and UV levels.
There are several links on the Home Page pointing to areas of interest with regards to Star Valley Weather. The Weather Cameras Link is unique and has been under development by my son, John Hales for the past ten years. There is a link on the many capabilities the site has with regards to viewing a large number of live web cams not only in the Star Valley and Western Wyoming but many other regions. During the snow season, one of the cameras records the snow depth( snow stake) 0n Vista Dr. in Star Valley Ranch. It will be activated when snow covers the ground, usually by early November. There are 3 active cams located in the Public Works/Town Hall building for The Town of Star Valley Ranch that are included on the Web Cam page.
To view the full resolution of each of these cameras use the following links:
There are Links to weather information including not only forecasts issued from the Weather Forecast Office in Riverton, WY but other types of more numerically derived prognostic tools. Also available are both radar and satellite data and surface observations. Additionally there is a climate section providing Daily Climate Information for many stations in and nearby Star Valley.
One other area of interest is my weather blog. The primary goal of the blog is to focus on weather forecasting and observing in and around Star Valley WY. It provides a means of enhancing the flow of weather info, particularly during periods of hazardous conditions both winter and otherwise. An example of a blog entry is the Snow Report posted in May 2020.
Questions or comments can be directed to Jack Hales at [email protected].