Holland Weather Buoy Update - Its returning next year!

[everhamme]

Here's an update I sent out to folks yesterday about the Holland Weather Buoy. Please email me if you want to receive future updates directly ([email protected])

The Holland Sentinel also just ran a story on it.

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/x1665854413/Weather-buoy-returning-in-2013-thanks-to-grant

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Its been a few months since I sent an email update about the Holland Buoy project that we completed in 2012. In my last update I mentioned that we were uncertain what would happen in 2013 and weren’t sure if the buoy would return or not. Since my last email we received dozens of emails from people across West Michigan who wanted to see the buoy return and everyone said that the data from the buoy was invaluable to them. Thank you to everyone that submitted an email! Its great to know our project was so well received last year! As a result of the success this email update is being sent out to almost 200 individuals who have expressed interest in the project. The pilot project was supported in 2012 by the Holland Convention and Visitors Bureau, Holland Board of Public Works, and Louis Padnos Iron and Metal.

NOAA Coastal Storms Grant through GLOS

In June 2012 (even before the Holland Buoy was launched), LimnoTech applied for a grant from the Great Lakes Observing System (www.glos.us) to fund the placement of a seasonal weather buoy in West Michigan from 2013 to 2015. The original source of the grant money was through the NOAA Coastal Storms Program (http://csc.noaa.gov/csp/) to improve the prediction of rip currents and high wind and waves in West Michigan through the use of a real-time near shore weather buoy. I am happy to say that we won this grant through an open bidding process! This $100,000 grant will fund a large part of the purchase, the deployment, maintenance, and retrieval of the weather buoy for the next three years. As part of our discussion with the National Weather Service office in Grand Rapids about the best location for the weather buoy we both agreed that the buoy should be placed between Grand Haven and Holland so that both communities could benefit by having a weather buoy close by. This means that the weather buoy will be deployed off of Port Sheldon next year at about the same depth, which is approximately 6 miles north of where it was deployed in 2012. As a result of the move the buoy will have a new identification number through NOAA. I will email that out in the spring once I know it along with the links to access the data in real-time. So the Grand Haven/Holland weather buoy is here to stay for at least three more years!

Opportunities for Support - Water Temperature at Depth and Webcam

The NOAA grant is covering the cost to measure the minimum requirements of what the National Weather Service requires on a weather buoy (wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wave height and period, and surface water temperature). The grant is not going to support additional sensors that might be more valuable to other users groups in the West Michigan Area. This could include a string of temperature sensors to measure water temperature all the way to the bottom or a webcam to provide a real-time image and video of current conditions. The temperature string that was on the buoy in 2012 was a used one from another project and failed in September.

If any individual or organization or business would like to contribute to the addition of these items on the buoy for 2013 please let me know ASAP. I’d be happy to provide more detail on either of these additions. The cost to add water temperature sensors all the way to the bottom would be approximately $5,000 and the cost to add the webcam would be about $5,000. Any sponsors would be recognized whenever possible including on the website displaying the additional data. The sensors would be redeloyed through at least 2015 with no additional funds. Unfortunately I am not able to provide any tax deductions for these items and my company is not able to accept funds smaller than $1,000. If another organization would like to raise money to see these sensors added please contact me and I can provide you the information. Please contact me if you want to “sponsor†one or a part of one of these sensors.

Thanks for your continued interest in the West Michigan buoy project and I look forward to working with you over the next three years! Watch for another email in April with information about the buoy launch and where the data will be available. Please don’t hesitate to email ([email protected]) or call (734-681-0577) with questions. Please forward this email on to whomever you think would be interested.

Happy New Year!

Ed

[Line Dancin]

Ed hope you didnt mind but i was excited about the news and posted your email within two minutes of reciveing it.

[everhamme]

Ed hope you didnt mind but i was excited about the news and posted your email within two minutes of reciveing it.

I don't mind at all Aaron. Please continue to spread the word! Also note that I am looking for funds to add on a thermistor string to the buoy next year. It'd be great to get the local fishing groups to fund this item as the fishermen use it the most.

[SUPERTRAMP]

Any word on the St Joseph Buoy?

[Just Hook'n]

Awesome...that thing is really valuable for a lot of people.

[Wasabi]

excellent news. Congratulations