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Why is it colder in James Bay? Schools collect the data

Almost 10 years of weather-data collection from Vancouver Island schools has brought about six billion pieces of information to the University of Victoria.
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Quadra Elementary principal Marilyn Campbell shows the monitor that transfers data from rooftop weather equipment.

Almost 10 years of weather-data collection from Vancouver Island schools has brought about six billion pieces of information to the University of Victoria.

It’s all thanks to the School-based Weather Station Network, co-created by Ed Wiebe and colleague Andrew Weaver, now the Green Party MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head and an acclaimed climate scientist.

The network, which includes about 150 Island schools, stretches up to Campbell River and west to Tahsis and Gold River, said Wiebe. “There’s still a hope that we can get up to the top of the Island to Port Hardy.”

The weather stations will be one of the key topics for Wiebe when he gives a presentation today on weather and climate as part of UVic’s fourth annual IdeaFest. Today is the final day of the IdeaFest showcase, in which UVic experts let the public know about their research and areas of interest.

The school-based weather stations measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall, the brightness of the sun and air pressure, sending results to a central database at UVic. “They’re located typically on a pole standing up above the roof,” said Wiebe,

The huge amount of data collected so far has helped confirm some long-held assumptions about weather, Wiebe said, such as James Bay and Fairfield being significantly colder at times than the rest of Greater Victoria.

“Everybody seems to know it but nobody has many observations. In summertime, many people have had the experience of driving from the UVic area — Gordon Head, Shelbourne. You go downtown, and as soon as you get downtown on a summer day in the afternoon, it’s five degrees, even 10 degrees cooler.

“That’s basically the influence of the ocean there,” Wiebe said. “But it’s only a buffer of a couple of kilometres along the coast.”

In the capital region, the station at Quadra Elementary School has been a big hit, said principal Marilyn Campbell.

“Kids do connect with them quite well,” said Campbell, who also benefits from the weather station at View Royal Elementary.

“I live in View Royal, so whenever I’m checking on what the weather forecast is I can link into it.”

Weaver first floated the weather-station idea to the Greater Victoria school district when he was serving as president of Victoria’s chapter of B.C. Parents’ Advisory Councils.

“The genesis of it came from our research in climate change,” Wiebe said. “We had put up a weather station for our own interest and we began to think ‘Well this is great community outreach.’

“We don’t emphasize climate change so much — we just talk about what we’re observing.”

The concept, with a goal of getting students excited about science and the world around them, gathered momentum with a $36,000 grant from National Science and Engineering Research Canada.

Weather monitoring began in 2005 and had spread to more than 50 school sites by 2006.

jwbell@timescolonist.com

 

• Wiebe will speak from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today in room A104 of the Bob Wright Centre at UVic.