Triangle Off Road Cyclists (TORC) and Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) are working on a pilot cellular weather station at TLC’s Brumley South nature preserve, south of Hillsborough. Brumley South has ten miles of adventurous trails for hikers, birders and mountain bikers, and reopening trails after storms is often a touchy issue.
Shaun King, executive director of TORC, explained, “The weather station we purchased will collect local rainfall and other weather data to help inform trail opening and closure decisions. Rainfall can vary considerably over short distances, so having measurements at the preserve should help us better understand conditions on the trails.
“If the project goes well and we discover that it helps create more objective and accurate benchmarks for opening and closing the trail systems–then we will explore deploying these weather stations at other trailheads.” They cost about $1,300 each. The weather station was expected to be online in mid October, King added.
J.B.