BAY-WAVELAND MIDDLE SCHOOL WIND TOWER & WEATHER STATION

August 23-24, 2006

In southern parts of the Mississippi Gulf coast, they are still cleaning up and rebuilding from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina last year (2005). One area hit extremely hard is the western portion of the state where Bay St. Louis and Waveland are. As you may know, we went back to Waveland 41 days after Katrina in 2005 to document the destruction and to talk with the folks there that we knew from the Waveland Fire Department. You can see that report and photos Here!

Now that nearly a year has passed, Mark Sudduth and several folks at the Lowe's Home Improvement corporate headquarters decided they wanted to give something to the community as they rebuild. Mark submitted the idea of setting up a meteorological wind tower at on the schools in the area. This way, they would have wind data as well as temperature, pressure, dewpoint, humidity and rainfall through the year and in case another hurricane hits the area we would have excellent data that was missing during Katrina. It could also be used and inserted into the school curriculum so the kids could learn about weather in their science classes. Mark went to the area previously to scout out areas for the tower. He decided on Bay-Waveland Middle School. This would be the first tower to be donated to the community by Lowe's as well as 2 more to come near and in Gulfport along the coast.

Mark and I set out this week to build the tower there at Bay-Waveland and have it operational for the opening of the brand new Lowe's store there in Waveland. After two days of hard work of building the tower and hooking up the equipment to power the station, transmit data to the web and the laptop there in the classroom so the children can use it in their class work. Below are the photos of the building and dedication of the tower from Lowe's and H.I.R.T. to the communities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland.

Here is the bottom section of the 33 foot tower that had been erected days before when the concrete was poured.

Here Mark poses with the first section of the tower on Wednesday August 23, 2006.

Inside the classroom, Mark starts putting together the instrument for the humidity, dewpoint, and temperature.

In the 2 photos above, Mark is wiring up the Robert Young anemometer to go on top of the tower at 33 feet.

Yours truly with the tower standing completely assembled.

Here it is with the anemometer up at 33 feet wired and working.

We walked around the building to see just how tall it really was. It has great exposure from all directions for accurate wind measurements.

A quick shot before sunset.

Next day, August 24, 2006- Mark poses with the district manager for Lowe's and the store manager of the new Waveland Lowe's before the dedication of the wind tower and weather station.

Here Mark gets a quick photo with all that made this exciting project possible.

Mark doing an interview just before the dedication.

Here, Mark and the Lowe's representatives stand the tower in place as the cameras look on.

Mark talks to the children about the tower and the equipment and how they can use it.

Before wrapping up, local station WLOX came to do a story on the tower and the school.

All Images Copyright Jesse V. Bass III and VaStormphoto.com