They say that talking about the weather is always a safe topic of conversation.  Soon Lansing residents will have more to talk about if four local lake-sports enthusiasts have their way.  The four are running a gofundme campaign to raise money to purchase a weather station to be installed at Myers Park.  As of this writing they have reached $3,415 of their $4,500 goal.  Once they reach or exceed this goal they will purchase and install a professional grade weather station that will provide boaters, wind surfers, kite-boarders and anyone who wants to go for a swim or just enjoy the park with the specific weather conditions there.

"People are constantly putting their boats in the marina at Myers Park, so they want to know what the conditions at the marina are," says Paddle-N-More owner Jennifer Wells Miller, who created the campaign along with Jeff Bishop, Wing Eng, and Steven Southworth.  "Having up to the minute access to wind and so on is very helpful.  The weather on the lake is different from what you see at the airport.  We have had storms hit Ithaca that completely missed Myers Park."

If the campaign can raise $4,500 it will fund a Gill MetPak base weather station with WindsonicM anemometer, Raspberry Pii controller, and possibly a water temperature sensor. If more money is raised a Webcam could provide a real-time look at the park over the Internet.The four volunteers set three funding goals, hoping to close the campaign in June.  If they could raise $750 they would be able to afford a consumer-quality weather station.  If they reached $2,000 they could bump that up to a small professional level station.  But after a recent email from Robert Rieger to fellow Friends of Salt Point members that drove a large bump-up in donations, the group now hopes to reach or exceed the $4,500 goal which will allow them to measure wind speed, precipitation, barometric pressure, and perhaps solar radiation.  If the goal is exceeded a water temperature sensor and a webcam may be added.

"We really didn't want to just buy a cheap back yard weather station," Miller says.  "We've been holding out, trying to continue to collect donations.  Now we realize we can purchase our first option.  It may not have all the bells and whistles, but that's what we're going for."

The weather station will communicate through the park maintenance shop wifi.  The plan is to have a stand-alone web page where people can quickly see the park weather conditions in real time, plus to share the data with various weather sites including Weather Underground, Cornell University's weather data site, and possibly the Windalert site.

Now that their first choice is in sight, the group has its eye on a Gill MetPak base station with WindsonicM anemometer, Raspberry Pi controller, and additional sensors.

"Gill makes pretty high-end research weather stations," Southworth, an avid kite-boarder, says.  "The first and most important thing we're going to do is an ultrasonic wind meter," Southworth says.  "It sends out an ultrasonic frequency in two directions, then it picks it up, and the Doppler effect change in different directions and amplitude gives you the wind direction and speed.  There are no moving parts.  it picks up the shift in frequency to get the wind speed and direction.  They're very accurate.  The $4,500 should cover the nice station -- all the stuff.  The next thing would be to add a web cam, a remote controlled camera people can look and turn and play with.  If we are over funded we might be able to do that."


Southworth says the Town has approved a site near the lighthouse, but not so close that the iconic view would be marred.  The Town will also install the base for an 8 inch, 50 foot pole that has been donated for the weather station to be mounted on.  Southworth says that once it is installed it should require little maintenance.

Gofundme is a popular site for crowdfunding projects.  Contributors choose the amount of their donation, then complete the transaction online with a credit or debit card, check or fund transfer.  Donations are listed on the campaign page, though contributors may opt to keep their name from being displayed on the campaign page.

Miller says her group is excited to be approaching their funding goal that will bring the best option to Myers Park users.  She says that in addition to the real time weather, she is looking forward to collecting data that will show weather trends that will help when planning water sports.  If the last $1,000 is donated the weather station will be able to bring park-goers a wealth of information.

"We're excited to be really close to the option that we want," Miller says.  "Storms come and go but sometimes they pass over this area.  I've had people come down here when it's not windy away from the lake, but they don't realize just how windy it is down here.  Cayuga Lake enthusiasts -- boaters, wind surfers, kiteboarders and just individuals who enjoy coming down and spending time on Cayuga Lake want to know what the conditions are."

With a few more donations they will soon be able to.

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