Valley’s first weather site hosted at USU
Cacheweather.com is the valley’s first local weather Web site produced by WeatherZane, a weather consulting company spearheaded by a Utah State University student.
Zane Stevens, studying biometeorology in the doctorate program, said he decided to start up Cacheweather.com for several reasons starting with the main fact Salt Lake City forecasts are never quite as accurate as they could be because their meteorologist can’t devote as much time to the valley.
“We [Cache Valley meteorologists] are more accurate and can time the storms better,” Stevens said. “Also, the Web site can provide a lot of fun information and interesting weather articles.”
However, they are not making any money on the Web site, he said.
“It comes from out of our pockets,” he said. “We pay a small fee and a lot of time and effort goes into it.”
Stevens said eventually, they will try to get some advertisements on the Web site.
Tim Wright, a senior in geography, helps with the site, Stevens said. Wright does the computer work and some forecasting. He’s the “web master.”
Aside from building and spearheading Cacheweather.com, Stevens said he is also the co-host and weatherman for channel 12’s Cache Valley Today and weather forecaster for The Herald Journal and KUSU radio.
“I’m never home,” he said. “But I hate to watch myself on TV anyway. It’s just one of those things.”
Stevens also works for Donald Jensen, director of the Utah Climatology Center at USU.
Jensen said the Climatology Center has been a part of USU since 1973, but existed in the late 60s when it was a part of the National Weather Service.
Stevens said he has also been working on a project with the Middle Sinks, an area with exceptionally cold temperatures located in the Bear River Range in Northern Utah, for the last 15 years.
He said he and a friend took equipment up to the Middle Sinks during their freshman year at USU and discovered Peter Sink, one of the very coldest areas within the Middle Sinks.
“Within two years we set the Utah state record for the coldest temperature of negative 69 in Peter Sink,” he said.
Before this, Woodruff, Utah, held the state record for negative 50 in 1899, he said.
Stevens said the reason the sinks are so cold is because the temperature drops as one gets deeper in the basin.
“It’s like a big bath tub,” he said. “Cold air fills up the bathtub and is the coldest air.”
Stevens said this project made him research why Cache Valley’s weather is so different from Salt Lake City’s when they are about the same elevation.
He said the reason is because Logan is in a valley and Salt Lake City is not. The Cache Valley is almost enclosed.
Jensen said Cache Valley has also just gone through the second most severe winter it has had in 100 years.
Yet, although the snow has helped to raise the precipitation level, Jensen said, every city in Utah is still below normal precipitation levels.