Come Rain or Shine: New Weather Station to be Installed at Trent
Part of the relocation of the Trent Experimental Farm, the new weather station will support the farm’s agricultural initiatives
Trent University is installing a new weather monitoring station at the Trent Experimental Farm.
“The new Farm is a good location to continue our weather data collection,” says Dr. Peter Lafleur, professor of Geography and research lead at the station. “Collecting weather data is very compatible with agricultural operations and there's a great deal of interest from the agricultural community and our researchers to have data collected at the farm.”
Trent’s current weather monitoring station near the Stanley Adamson Dam has been collecting weather data for the past 40 years. The collected data is used by researchers, students and individuals and organizations interested in weather information.
A whole suite of weather variables are measured at the Trent station, including precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind speeds and directions, solar radiation, and soil temperatures.
Prof. Lafleur will be able to measure additional variables at the new station, including monitoring soil moisture, which will be valuable to the farm’s operations.
The new weather monitoring station was made possible through a generous gift from local civil engineering company, D.M. Wills Associates Limited.
“It is fantastic that D.M. Wills supports this initiative. The funding will allow us to purchase the necessary weather equipment for the new site,” says Prof. Lafleur. “We hope to have the new station up and running by the end of the summer.”
Prof. Lafleur says that the new station will run in conjunction with the current station for at least a year or two. The overlap in data collection is essential to account for subtle variations due to the location change.
Although Prof. Lafleur is primarily responsible for the station, he foresees that the new location will bring more opportunities for students to engage with the equipment. He also plans to develop an accessible online data archive, which will make the data more accessible to students and community partners.
Learn more about upcoming projects for Trent’s new Experimental Farm.