Isle Royale Forums

NOTE: This thread is again opened up for discussion and input as of 6 May 15.

Apparently there are 4 automated weather reporting stations on or around Ilse Royale - one on an island off the SW tip of IR, one at Windigo, one on Passage Island (NW tip) and the fourth on Mt. Ojibway. You can view them on a Google Map through
Weather Underground - this link is for one called (Mount?) Ojibway MI though it is shown at the Mott Island Ranger Station. Simply pan and zoom to get to the others from there.

http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/? ... ix=0&dir=0

Just on the map view you get current temperature and can interpret relative wind speed and wind direction and precip according to "NEXRAD Radar". When you click the station icon you get a pop-out of conditions since midnight. The forecast for the Mt. Ojibway station, seems to be for Welcome Island, ON, offshore Thunder Bay, but if you click the link on the current conditions pop-out you can select to view the history for that station for various time periods. It doesn't record precipitation or dew point, but does show temperature and wind highs and lows and wind direction. It also shows current "Solar Radiation" but I don't know how to translate watts per square meter to cloud cover. I have a reasonably fast internet connection, but things are very slow when I look at the history of the station, whether for the current day or other time periods.

Enjoy

Very cool. I've never seen this one before. I'll have to start keeping an eye on this site as my May 15 arrival draws near.

Yep, this one is in my bookmarks. I seem to recall those of us who hiked in June used it to remind all of those who hike in August how many inches of rain they got those couple days..

I've been frustrated by the slow response of the Weather Underground site I mentioned at the start of this thread, so looked for another way to access this public data. One place is through this service from the University of Utah, http://mesowest.utah.edu/index.html. Its main purpose is to support wild fire monitoring.

I can't seem to make a bookmark that keeps my selections, even the ones as coarse as location. If I created a profile on the site, I guess I could save all my settings. But you can click on Michigan on the opening page, pan up to Isle Royale and zoom in a bit. Then in the upper left, "Data Selection", in the "Network" pull-down, select "All Networks". Click the "Radius" tab and click, say 150 miles, then click the map at Isle Royale. You'll see all four weather stations on Isle Royale, two at Grand Portage, three around Thunder Bay and more.

Unlike the Weather Underground link, this doesn't give forecasts for the weather stations, but those forecasts weren't for the island proper, anyway. This site does have great graphs of the measured items for the last 24 hours. You can get more historical data (supposedly back to 1997) using the "Time Options" in the "Other Features" frame on the left, but I haven't played with that yet.

This is available as a kmz file and the help system briefly explains how to use it with Google Maps. I prefer another free product, ArcGIS Explorer from ESRI http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/exp ... nload.html, but haven't figured out how to add this in.

I've made a thread and stickied it in the Weather & Bugs sub-forum. You will see it at the top, labeled [OFFICIAL]Weather & conditions on Isle Royale

This will display the weather from the West side of the island (Windigo), and from the East side of the island (Mott Island/Rock Harbor)

Right now, it's just the Wunderground weather badges displayed, but I hope to change it so it's embedded and will also have the forecast with pretty pictures (the forecast is unavailable unless you read the direct feed from the weather station).

Since I'm a few weeks out from my trip, I've started my compulsive trend of checking the weather on IR daily. Unfortunately, I've noticed that the Wunderground weather stations mentioned in this thread and this thread are no longer valid. The marine forecasts, however, are still good.

I've done some scouring and can only find ONE Isle Royale Wunderground weather station now:
http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/buoy/PILM4.html

The marine forecasts, however, are still valid...except the Rock of Ages doesn't do temperature, only wind:
Rock of Ages: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=roam4
Passage Island (same as Wunderground, above?): http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=pilm4

Here's what I have for the recreational forecast for IR, from the Marquette NWS:
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/sx ... ec.mqt.txt

The Great Lakes Nearshore Marine Forecast from Marquette:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/ ... /mqtmz.htm

Open Lake Forecast from Marquette NWS:
http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn ... glf.ls.txt

The Great Lakes Nearshore Marine Forecast from Duluth NWS:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/ ... /dlhmz.htm

Other great lakes conditions reports from the NWS:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/forecast.htm#glf

I've bumped this thread to re-open this discussion...so the question is: does anyone have any updated weather stations for Isle Royale? Share them here, and I'll update the [OFFICIAL] thread as applicable.

I would definitely keep the IR Recreational Forecast (http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/sx ... ec.mqt.txt) as that's what gets posted at the Ranger stations. The NWS typically starts updating it in mid-May, from what memory serves. (And, clearly, stops updating in the end of Sept.) It's the one I typically stalk as it gets closer to my trips...

Here is the station for Windigo, like you have:
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-we ... ?ID=MWINM4
(Station id is MWINM4)
While it's not currently responding, it was fairly reliably reporting in until May 4th, so perhaps it's a temporary victim of opening up that side of the island. I think that's the same case for the east side, as well. I would wait a little bit, as I'm guessing they'll return.

Tom

I'm not sure where the data pulls from, but I use the weather channel app for iPhone. Has a spot for isle Royale.

Fonix, I would use "Passage Island Light" instead of "Buoy" for PILM4. Some sites pull from the NBDC (National Buoy Data Center) and don't distinguish between buoys and lights, even though the lights are part of the database. There is no buoy on Passage Island, LOL.

Tom wrote: I would definitely keep the IR Recreational Forecast (http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/sx ... ec.mqt.txt) as that's what gets posted at the Ranger stations. The NWS typically starts updating it in mid-May, from what memory serves. (And, clearly, stops updating in the end of Sept.) It's the one I typically stalk as it gets closer to my trips...

Here is the station for Windigo, like you have:
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-we ... ?ID=MWINM4
(Station id is MWINM4)
While it's not currently responding, it was fairly reliably reporting in until May 4th, so perhaps it's a temporary victim of opening up that side of the island. I think that's the same case for the east side, as well. I would wait a little bit, as I'm guessing they'll return.

I didn't catch that, thanks! I'll add their links with that caveat.

Ingo wrote:Fonix, I would use "Passage Island Light" instead of "Buoy" for PILM4. Some sites pull from the NBDC (National Buoy Data Center) and don't distinguish between buoys and lights, even though the lights are part of the database. There is no buoy on Passage Island, LOL.

Change made, thanks Ingo.

tightlines01 wrote:I'm not sure where the data pulls from, but I use the weather channel app for iPhone. Has a spot for isle Royale.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1431006857.225816.jpg

Tightlines, the attachment didn't come through. Also, I've found with some of these larger, more commercialized weather apps (ala Weather Channel) that they just aggregate data from some place nearby, usually Houghton. If you can find out where it's actually pulling the data, I'll consider adding it, but weather data from Houghton just isn't the same as the weather on the Island...

Fonix
Yeah I've got no clue where it's pulling from... It's just a simple easy way for me to get something close to what to expect. I was just putting what I found to be a simple easy way to check it.

I have no clue if it's more or less accurate, it's just been "close enough" for my tastes.

BTW, I contacted the Meteorologist in Charge at the Marquette National Weather Service.
Officially, the Isle Royale Recreational Forecast doesn't have a fixed starting date, but is traditionally issued beginning the week before Memorial Day. They coordinate this date with the NPS. It then does run until the end of Sept. So "Traditionally the week before Memorial Day until the end of September" would be the best note for that one.

Tom

Tom wrote:BTW, I contacted the Meteorologist in Charge at the Marquette National Weather Service.
Officially, the Isle Royale Recreational Forecast doesn't have a fixed starting date, but is traditionally issued beginning the week before Memorial Day. They coordinate this date with the NPS. It then does run until the end of Sept. So "Traditionally the week before Memorial Day until the end of September" would be the best note for that one.

Tom

Updated. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting on that one, Tom.

FYI, the NWS Marquette office contacted me this afternoon and let me know that the Isle Royale Forecasts for 2015 will start tomorrow. (May 15th)

Here's to sunny days for all the visitors heading out soon!

Here's what I have for the recreational forecast for IR, from the Marquette NWS:
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/sx ... ec.mqt.txt

This link is dead. These were nice forecasts as they were (as noted above) what you would find at the ranger stations. Anyone have an updated link? Couldn't find one at a glance.