Cuckoo for CoCoRaHS in the Carolinas: New Weather Station for the Carolinas!

Friday, February 6, 2015

New Weather Station for the Carolinas!

We have a new, fully automated weather station in South Carolina, thanks to the cooperative efforts of the North Carolina and South Carolina State Climatology offices. The station is located atop Sassafras Mountain in northeastern Pickens county, situated just on the North Carolina South Carolina border. Called the SASS station, it is a unique weather station in that, while being located in South Carolina, it will operate within North Carolina’s Environmental and Climate Observing Network, or ECONet. The State Climatology offices decided on a collaborative effort because South Carolina had the funding to build the station, while North Carolina already possessed a well developed and sophisticated climate network to support continual data collection. The mutually beneficial relationship was logical, and both state climate offices have access to the data. Additionally, climate data from SASS pertains to both states as it straddles the border.

Even more exciting, the new station fills a void in data collection for both states. At an elevation of 3,533 feet, Sassafras Mountain is the highest point in South Carolina, and forms part of the part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Almost all other weather stations near the mountainous region sit at much lower elevations, or do not experience such variable weather. Consequently, we should expect to see new state records for South Carolina as data is recorded in the coming years. Just this past month on January 8th, we recorded -1 degree Fahrenheit, and -19 degrees when accounting for wind chill. If you want to track future readings for the SASS station, they can be found at http://nc-climate.ncsu.edu/cronos/?station=SASS.