High on top the St. Peter Middle School building is a high-tech weather reporting station. Installed in 1997 with a grant from WSAW Channel 7 in Wausau, Wisconsin, this station provides current weather information that is broadcast by WSAW during its nightly (6:00 and 10:00 PM) weather segments. More importantly, the station, with its colorful display mounted in the main hallway, is used by the middle school in the teaching of weather units in eighth grade science classes, and by the school administration for weather-related decisions, like obtaining the wind-chill for outdoor winter activities. St. Pete's weather station is part of a nation-wide weather network of schools and TV stations sponsored by Automated Weather Source (AWS). As of approximately 6:00 PM, May 4th, 2000, the St. Pete's weather station went on-line. That is to say, it began making its current data available on the Internet. This is significant in that now it is possible for every class in the SPACS system to view the current weather right from their classroom computer.
This also means that anyone with Internet access and a browser (like Netscape or MS Internet Explorer) can access and display the current Stevens Point weather (hourly updates) on their computer. Users can also access current weather through the "WeatherBug" program (available free from AWS), which displays "live" weather (updated every second) from hundreds of sites in the U.S., including Stevens Point. The WeatherBug program, when running, continually displays the temperature of the selected station in the lower right corner of the monitor next to the time, and, when clicked, brings up a weather display. There are also links to other weather related information, like storm warnings, sky cams, etc. on the display. Science teachers teaching weather (in SPACS, primarily fourth and eighth grades) will be able to run special software designed by AWS that will access stored data to do comparisons over time, or among other schools with online weather stations around the country.
(Download WeatherBug for your PC) Current Stevens Point Weather