Janet and Rudy

I have had an interest in the weather ever since I was a small boy. I still remember those winter days when the forecast was for snow. Maybe school would be cancelled! Money could by made shoveling driveways! Summers brought the excitement of violent storms with claps of thunder, lightning and drenching sheets of rain. I pestered my parents until they bought me a minimum / maximum thermometer for my 13th birthday. This began a lifetime of recording weather observations. I still have fond memories of my first year jotting down daily high and low temperatures and measuring rainfall that accumulated in the rain gage. That first winter...1960 - 1961...didn't let me down. Each winter month here in Bergenfield experienced a major snowstorm. I continued weather observing through high school. Years later, my obsession with the weather led me to computer programming. I felt certain that a personal computer was just what I needed to organize my weather data. However, I was unable to find any suitable weather software when I purchased an Apple 2E computer in 1982. I studied basic, pascal and then C as I wrote programs to manipulate my weather records. In recent years the web has provided a forum in which many weather enthusiasts can share their interests. I now have a daily routine in which I visit weather-related web sites maintained by amateurs in New Zealand, Germany, Great Britain, Australia and all over the U.S.A. As time went by, I felt that I had to join this community and began studying web design. This website is the result.

Station Notes

Bergenfield-weather.com was written using Dreamweaver 8. I deployed the first version on August 24, 2008. Another version was launched on September 8, 2008 after I tightened up the code and improved the navigation system. I also added an Observer's Notes section. On November 22, 2008, I added a new page displaying weather conditions along the East Coast from Washington, D.C. to Boston, MA. using data derived from METAR reports. On December 1, 2008, I added a page of European weather observations. During the next few weeks I added pages for South America and Asia. During the last week in May 2009 I re-wrote sections of the website and used server-side include files to make make the code more efficient. I also added a solar sunspot page.

On February 1, 2010 I installed another version. The page layouts were re-written and I added a new radar section. My home page now displays current weather conditions collected from personal weather stations in the New York City region.

I decided to launch a new version on September 1, 2010. The page layouts were changed and new images were added.

I replaced my Vantage Pro with a Vantage Pro2 Plus on May 8, 2011. This unit has a solar-powered aspirating fan.

On 1 June, 2011 I added an El Nino and almanac section to the web site. I also used this opportunity to re-write sections of code. A new navigation system was added and the page layouts were altered.

I re-wrote parts of the site on 1 December, 2011. Equal height columns were introduced and a new series of photos was added.