Ticker for February 24, 2004

                
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February 24, 2004  February 24, 2004  February 24, 2004  February 24, 2004



Ardmore Mesonet Site Gets New Digs

ARDM, the Ardmore Mesonet site that we've all grown to know and love,
ceased to exist Thursday, Feb. 18, shortly after offering the last of
more than 1.21 million weather observations during its service.
It leaves behind a ten meter square plot of land, but few other
physical reminders of its existence.  ARDM was born August 12, 1992
at a location three miles east-northeast of the city of Ardmore, where
it spent its entire operational life.

ARDM will be remembered for many things, not the least of which was
its performance during the heat wave of July 7, 1996, when it recorded
a staggering 112-degree high.  Or, how about the time when it braved
a torrential downpour to measure 3.77" of precip on September 15, 2001?

In its place (well, 180 feet to the northwest of its place) rises ARD2,
the new and improved Ardmore Mesonet station.  ARD2 gets its own
ten meter by ten meter plot of land -

by the way, do you find it strange that when a Mesonet site is
born we talk about sticking it in a ten-by-ten plot, but when
one goes away, we take it out of the ground?

- anyway, ARD2 will continue the climate record established by ARDM.
However, the Oklahoma Mesonet's strict QA standards necessitate a new
station identifier (ARDM -> ARD2) to signify any change in station
location.  This tiny bit of information can be very important to
climate and climate-change researchers, for whom fractions of degrees
are substantial changes.

Here are the specifics on the new ARD2 site, from Mesonet Manager
Chris Fiebrich:

Latitude:    34.19260
Longitude:  -97.08569
Elevation:   266 m

Reason for move:  A Noble Foundation project will need access to
the land where the existing Ardmore site is located.  The Mesonet
site will only move 180 feet to the northwest ... but in keeping
with our commitment to maintaining accurate metadata, we will
change the site name to ARD2.

We leave with our favorite photo of ARDM, whose final act of selfless
service was the donation of its tower for use at ARD2: