Congratulations to John Slama and
Desertweather.com in Palm Springs, CA on your selection as WXForum.net’s Featured Weather Web Site for Spring 2007!
John's website went live in early 2003, with a simple, one page, VWS template for his personal remote viewing.
He acquired the domain "DesertWeather.com" in mid 2004. In mid 2005 he expanded it from the VWS template to its own look.
In June 2006, John changed his setup to the site you see today.
John uses the popular Davis Vantage Pro2 with FARS weather station which was installed in July 2005. He currently doesn't have solar or UV sensors, but he does plan to add them sometime in the future. His first station was a OS WMR-968, and he was constantly having to replace parts. As John says, "Here in the 110 degree+ summers the sensors and solar collectors just didn't last. I replaced it with my current VP2 and have never looked back. The better data resolution and the added benefit of the data logger impressed me at first, then the quality. This VP2 is going strong and in 2 years I haven't had a single problem (knock on wood)."
John jokingly says about his weather software usage that "I use everything!
Seriously though, I started off with Virtual Weather Station, then as my site expanded I saw the need for features that Weather Display offered. About that time I discovered
VirtualVP that made it easy to run both. Realizing that I can run both reliably I think I will never eliminate either one. Then came the invite from the National Weather Service for their Mesonet program and they required WeatherLink for that. And finally I use VPLive for CWOP because I needed to fill that last spot in VirtualVP
" .
John uses Dreamweaver 8 for his primary web development software. He also uses ImageSalsa for webcam processing.
He has produced a fine set of weather graphics for his site using Anole's
weather graphic PHP script.
John's initial reason to have his site online was to see his weather conditions from work or when he was out of town (so he could check-in to see the local conditions). As more people stumbled on his site and started to thank him for having local weather so available, his motivation increased to provide a service for the locals and "snowbirds" in Palm Springs. He receives emails from folks who visit or own second homes in Palm Springs that say how much they enjoy having DesertWeather.com as a resource for their weather information. As John says, "That gives me a lot of motivation to expand and grow DesertWeather to make it as useful as I can for others." Looking at his website, you can see the care he's taken to present the weather conditions and other useful information in a pleasing and accessible format.
John cites his inspirations as "Being a member of the
Southwestern Weather Network among other forums has helped/motivated me immensely. And a lot of the members of SWN you see on WXForum and other forums
so this applies to them as well. There are so many people out there that are willing to take the time and help. I've been a part of other interest groups and nothing is like the weather enthusiast group you see on SWN, WXForum, and others. Its great to be a part of that, thank you! Seeing all the other great sites of the members of the different forums did help me improve my site. One site in particular,
Capitola Weather Net, has inspired me the most for its cosmetically pleasing layout and ease of use."
His future plans include hardware additions (a web cam and Lightning detector) sometime by years end. For the website, he's looking at expanding the Community aspect of his site and improving the (ed. already fine) layout & cosmetics.
Weather data from desertweather.com is shared with CWOP (CW2285), Weather Underground (KCATHOUS8), and Weather for You. His station is currently participating in providing data to the NWS, Southwestern Weather Network, and Weather Display MML. John says, "The more organizations that use my data, the more rewarding it becomes!"
John has been interested in weather for as long as he can remember. He's lived his entire 36 years in the desert, and the fact that in Southern California doesn't have too much (extreme) weather has sparked his interests into what it is today. John says, "I've always wanted to see a tornado up close and that is one of my goals in life!"
John's most rewarding aspect of the website is "that unsolicited e-mail you get from someone unknown that visits your site often and how they depend on your site for their weather information! I've also been told that several of the local news stations use my data for my area on their weather casts! That's exciting. Now if only I could get them to say "DesertWeather.com" I'd have it made. I do have about 8 sites/businesses using my stickers and hope to expand that in the future. So just the fact the others find DesertWeather.com useful is most rewarding!"
John offers this advice to someone wanting to get started in weather watching as a hobby: "The first advice would be
to get yourself a (good) weather station. Don't go cheap! Invest in at least a Davis VP. I had a lot of problems with the other, more reasonable station, and all it did was take my focus off of my site and onto keeping it working!"
For someone starting a weather website (or improving an existing site), John recommends "keep your site simple and easy to navigate. Use the excellent resources of WXForum, and other weather forums to get ideas and help."
John is 36, married, and has 2 boys (5 & 8 ). He has lived all his life in the Coachella Valley, and says "I love it here, can't beat the weather, well in the winter anyways
" John manages a small family-owned furniture store. His hobbies are "Life, family, weather, ..."
"I will take this opportunity to thank you all for the honor of having the Spring 2007 Featured Website!
The other nominees deserve equal attention."
Well said, John!
Congratulations, John, on your well deserved selection as WXforum.net’s Featured Weather Web Site for Spring 2007, and a hearty congratulations to the other nominees as well! All of your sites are an inspiration to us all.
