Once the woodburning stove in the white house near Millrace Road heats up around 7:30 a.m., Clifford Funk flips the switch on his PC and becomes Oakley, Utah’s weatherman.
His home-cooked weather system, one-part eBay find, one-part home improvement sits in the vast field behind his house: a white wooden box in a white snowy field, hugged by a fence in the midst of a rural landscape. Beyond his property lies a sea of fenced-in farms and horse corals. Since leaving Park City, Funk’s lived here for three years. “This is why I’m inspired,” he says, surveying his view.
Each day, the instruments at the weather station the long-poled anemometer that reads the wind’s speed, the gauge that measures rainfall, the sensors that assesses assess temperature and humidity cadence transmit information wirelessly to his computer. From there, he loads information onto his Web site, oakleyweather.com. Until 10:30 p.m., the system reports everything online minute to minute from the current outdoor temperature to wind chill and outdoor humidity. So that visitors can compare his reports, he posts links to the weather channels listings.
People and businesses, like Weller Recreation, which rents snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, log onto oakleyweather.com on a daily basis.
“Weather affects the lives of the people out here, especially the farmers and ranchers,” Funk explains. “People wake up and it dictates what their day will be like. Weather is a big part of living in Oakley.”
Funk says he is by no means a trained meteorologist; he’s self-taught. Around Christmas 2006, he decided to purchase his $200 weather station equipment after his cable reception had been out for five days. Later, employing his knowledge as a Web designer and manager, he then decided to share his information on the Internet.
In 2007, all told, Funk reports 14,100 unique page views. However, in the past three weeks the number has skyrocketed, mainly because he added a live camera to his site that gives visitors a peek at what it looks like outside.
In the month of January, before the camera, oakleyweather.com aggregated a total of 2,132 page views; in February, after he added the camera, the site aggregated a total of 4,373 page views. One couple even called from Southern California, he said, to thank him for keeping them in touch with their second home in KamasValley. “It’s really interesting to check the page views,” Funk reflects. “In the beginning, when I didn’t do anything, I got maybe 500 visitors a month.”
According to John Horel, professor of meterology at the University of Utah, since the advent of ham radio, the number of amateur weathermen has grown and, with the advent of the Internet, a few sites have collected the data from various locations. The Weather Undergound at wunderground.com, started by professors at the University of Michigan, has been compiling weather hobbyists’ information since the 1990s. There’s also a network called the Citizen Weather Observer Program, located online at wxqa.com, which is a private-public partnership to collect data from home weather stations. Horel estimates the site has more than 5,000 locations. In its current “active member” list, the site boasts about 100 Utah home-run stations, including three in Park City registered by Roger Crow, Bret Mills and Jim Olsen.
“Every station that’s out there provides useful information, because locations like Oakley have their own local microclimate,” says Horel. “Weather varies in the mountains. Any mountainous area has its own weather situation.”
But Funk has engineered oakleyweather.com to be more than a weather site. Within the past year, he has expanded the site’s offerings to include links to lists of local events and businesses, classifieds and a Summit Valley Blog which keeps visitors up to date on issues concerning the towns Oakley, Coalville, Henefer, Kamas, Francis and their surrounding areas.”I want to help the community stay alive,” Funk explains.
The latest stories on the blog have featured footage on South Summit High School’s roof cave-in this winter and the transport of the Oakley Diner by truck. Funk’s reporting on a Kamas City Council hearing concerning the High Star Ranch application for annexation, provides pictures and maps of the proposed 1,038-acre development and 14 quotes he recorded during the February meeting.
“The annexation is just huge for this valley,” Funk explains. “But people aren’t totally aware about what’s going on sometimes. I was talking to someone at the grocery store the other day and they thought the plans had already been approved, when they weren’t. They need to be part of the decision-making so they aren’t surprised when the bulldozers come in.”
In Park City, where he lived for 35 years, helping to coach skateboarding teams, Funk became well-versed in local politics. While he finds the landscape refreshing and untouched in Oakley, he is concerned that his neighbors stay informed, should they, perhaps, want to keep it that way. “I just want them to have that information so that they can become more a part of the process,” Funk says. “I don’t want to give anyone my opinion on the site I just want to provide a balanced view to keep people aware of what’s going on in the valley and make sure they have a voice And I think that they are starting to recognize that this is where they can get someof their news.”
Oakleyweather.com archives
In 2008 (and counting)
Highest temperature reading: 45.5 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb. 29
Lowest temperature reading: -14.0 degrees Fahrenheit on Jan. 1 and Jan. 22
In 2007
Highest temperature reading: 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit on July 10
Lowest temperature reading: -21.2 degrees Fahrenheit on Jan. 14
First snowfall for the 2007-2008 ski season: Sept. 24, 2007