The Sources for Amelia Island Weather Information

The Sources for Amelia Island Weather Information 120902

Since it was so hot yesterday at the sea turtle release, I had temperature on my mind. This naturally led to wondering about the weather at Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island. I started by trying to find out the normal temperatures for Fernandina Beach and ended up on the Weather Channel website. The average highs and lows were no surprise to me since that was one factor for moving to Amelia Island. The record high of 104 F and low of 4 F were a bit surprising, but those happen so rarely I don't really worry about those extremes.

If there are weather reports from Fernandina Beach, where do they come from? Maybe I could find the weather station on the island and ask RS to take a picture of it. I Googled 'Fernandina Beach Weather Station' and immediately found that there is a weather buoy just off the north end of Amelia Island. You can get up-to-date information on temperature, wave height and wind direction. There is also a weather station in Fernandina Beach. Both of these are operated by NOAA.

I wondered where the Fernandina Beach weather station was. Although a picture was included on the website, I wasn't sure. Then, I tried entering the latitude and longitude information (30.672 N 81.465 W) from the weather station website on Google maps. WOW! it showed me exactly where it is ... right on Front Street in downtown Fernandina Beach.

We went to the Google location and the weather station wasn't there. But a little looking north of the spot turned it up. It's near the Fernandina Port Parking Lot on Front Street. It's the rectangular box in RS' photo.

Fernandina Beach weather Station 120903

As I looked more at Google I came across Doppler radar at Fernandina Beach from one of the Jacksonville TV stations. Included on their website was a map centered on downtown Fernandina Beach. Where did that come from? When I Googled doppler radar I immediately came across the National Weather Service's website showing U.S. doppler radar sites. It turns out the site is in Jacksonville. I guess Fernandina Beach is an also ran on doppler radar sites.

The weather here is so interesting. We live in a sub-tropical climate so you would think every day is almost like every other day, but it is not so. Maybe I am just more attuned to the weather here than when I lived in the big city. Here I notice clouds and how different they are. I notice the light and how it changes. Wind speed, rain and humidity are always a part of being outside. Tides become important. When was the last time a city dweller thought about tides?

After all this thinking about weather and what I discovered, I thought that maybe the weather station would be a fun little part of a tour of Fernandina Beach ... "and here, folks, is one of 4000 NOAA weather reporting stations in the USA. Weather is important in Fernandina Beach ..."

-CR
Photos by RS