New weather stations installed in the High Desert

In preparation for the winter season, the Mojave Water Agency has installed several weather stations to record rainfall levels in the High Desert area of San Bernardino County.

“In October, our team completed a year-long project that installed several weather stations throughout our service area,” said Board President Mike Page. “We used to rely on other agencies for this data and now we are fully capable of recording it ourselves. This project also fills in specific gaps in our service area so our recordings can be as accurate as possible.”

In addition to measuring rain fall, the stations are capable of collecting soil temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation. The data is captured and shared with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and publicly available online at mojave.westernweathergroup.com.

The data collected will assist Mojave Water Agency with managing the groundwater basins in their service area.

“It is important that we measure both the water or ‘precipitation’ coming into our service area, as well as the water leaving our basins,” said Water Resources Manager Melody Bailey. “These two sets of data are crucial in our efforts to better understand basin health.”

There are a total of 11 Mojave Water Agency weather stations located throughout its service area including: Apple Valley, Hesperia, Piñon Hills, Oak Hills, Helendale, Lenwood, Newberry Springs, Lucerne Valley, Johnson Valley, Pipes Wash Canyon (Pioneertown), and Bighorn Desert View (Landers).