High-tech weather monitoring on the Central Coast
The Central Coast climate sees very little differentiation between the coldest day and the most extreme, with most days averaging 65 to 80 degrees and the number of freezing days or days above 90 fairly rare.
While the United States sees the most severe weather in the world, the Central Coast is actually one of the most stable weather environments with fog much more common than thunderstorms.
With an environment like that you might think high tech weather equipment would be lacking, but the opposite is true. The Central Coast weather is actually highly monitored. Not only are weather balloons launched from the Central Coast, but due to having a nuclear power plant on the Central Coast, there are millions of data points being collected and shared globally.
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant has 23 weather monitoring towers measuring temperature, wind direction and speed from a number of altitudes. Offshore, there is a Waverider buoy which records swell height and direction as well as water temperature. Near shore, there is a sonic radar system which records even more data about wind direction and speed along with a high frequency radar network which monitors ocean currents.
While the information is used for plant operations, the primary function is public safety.
John Lindsey, PG&E’s weather expert at Diablo Canyon, says fishermen and surfers are just a few of the groups that use the free data.
“A lot of lifeguards look at that data to determine if there is a long period swell coming in," he explains. "Long period swells tend to produce rip currents, and rip currents are always a big threat here on the Central Coast.”
The information is also shared with biologists and researchers for environmental management.
PG&E is not the only agency gathering highly detailed information about the atmosphere around us. The SLO Air Pollution Control District also manages a number of monitoring sites which record temperature and wind along with the ozone saturation and the amount of particulate matter.
While the numbers on the Central Coast are generally good, Karl Tupper, Air Pollution Control District Specialist, says the readings are critical due to regional air quality issues.
“The nation as a whole, and California in particular, has a huge ozone problem," he says. "California has some of the worst air quality in the country and we are not isolated from that.”
Larry Allen, with the Air Pollution Control District, says a lot of people move to San Luis Obispo County for clean air.
“We have mostly (good conditions) in county but we do have some problems in the south county and some high ozone in east county, but for the most part we have very good air quality and our role is to make sure it stays that way,” he says.
If you are interested in the data produced by the Air Pollution Control District or by PG&E, both say the information is widely available for you to access through their website or connections they maintain with government agencies.
