Author: tedroche

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Downtime

Several of the weather reporting systems we have running broke down at 5:15 PM yesterday. While setting up fans in the windows after a long hot day, I suspect I bumped the GW1100 gateway device and cause it to malfunction. The gateway gets signals from all the local sensors, and makes that data available on the LAN. From there, a Raspberry Pi reads the data, formats it into several pretty formats, and forwards it on the website where you read it, and also forwards the data on to other online sites.

The gateway was in a quirky state neither on nor off, and the Raspberry Pi locked up waiting for it complete a conversation with gateway.

I didn’t notice the problem until this morning and after a lot of running around getting diagnostic info, turning things off and back on again (still the #1 solution to IT problems!) and jiggling a lot of wires, it appears we’re back up and running.

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Dry February

Analysis from CoCoRaHS showing February totals at 40% of normal, year-to-date of 59% normal, and Water Year-To-Date (October 1-Feb 28) of 68% of normal.
Drought monitor at https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu showing the New Hampshire drought situation at 42.77% Sever Drought, 36.55% in Moderate Drought and 20.68% as Abnormally Dry, dated February 24, 2026

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AS SEEN ON TV!

Ryan Hall, digital meteorologist, did one of his well-attended livestreams during the Great Blizzard of 2026 and featured a picture I had submitted of his “Y’All-O-Meter 2.0″ showing 15 inches of snow in the field before the blizzard arrived in Contoocook. I was disappointed that we got wind and nearly no accumulation from the storm, while grateful we didn’t get the 33” reported around Providence, Rhode Island.

It really was “as seen on TV,” as I stream YouTube through the Roku to the TV. Okay, so not *broadcast* *television* but it was still cool to get a shoutout.

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New temperature sensors

On the intranet weather report, we’ve added two new temperature/humidity sensors (WN31) to monitor the garage and the three-season porch. While the porch is enclosed for the cold season(s), temperatures are often the hottest in the house! The garage has become more important as LLL grew tomatoes this year, on a rolling cart and a totable bucket, and we would bring them in during inclement, especially extra-cold weather. On November 1, we’re still harvesting tomatoes, in New Hampshire!

In-house temperature graph showing newly added Porch and Garage thermometers acclimating to their new location.
Newly installed hygrometers for Porch and Garage acclimating to their new home.
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Offline yesterday

Alert weather watchers observed the websites (https://wx.iayft.com, https://contoocook.org and https://contoocook.org/cell.php) were offline Sunday morning, July 27th. My internet hosting provider (Linode/Akamai) had a long-term site power outage and troubled recovery of their HVAC systems resulting in a long, slow, manual restoration. The were good about keeping their users informed. I expect many lessons were learned and I’m looking forward to the follow-up to the incident. No data was lost, and the sites are back up and running now. If anyone notices anomalies, let me know using the “Contact” form linked above.

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How ’bout now?

Yesterday, June 23rd had a high temperature of 97.9°F, a record for the day, a heat index of 116.0°F and a dew point of 81.0°F! Today is expected to be similar. making an early New England heat wave, 3 days over 90°F.

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WeatherRadio presentation

The Partners in Emergency Preparedness (https://piepc.org/) host a monthly seminar on relavant topics, and this month hosted Bruce Jones, a meteorologist and spokesperson for Midland Radio, to talk about the history of public alert systems and the work that they are doing now. Bruce is a long-time broadcaster and put on an entertaining, organized and informative show! I encourage everyone with an interest to watch and keep an eye on PIEPC.org for future shows!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Z1xtIaAoM

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Contoocook reaches 100℉ !

Okay, it’s not boiling hot in Tooky on the Eve of Christmas Eve. As of this morning 6:45am, it was -5.4℉ in Tooky. But that means, combined with the high temperature of 95.2℉ on June 20th, Contoocook saw a range of over 100℉ over the year.

That’s a tad warmer than usual, but nowhere near a record for low temperatures. It’s been -17℉ in previous years during this week, and in the past 33 years, I once saw -33℉ and, boy, that’s cold weather for a dog walk! Stay warm and enjoy the holiday season!