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| History |
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In
1946, the University of Illinois Department of Civil Engineering installed
a network of recording raingages throughout Champaign-Urbana for
hydrologic studies of the Boneyard. The Department asked the fledgling
meteorology group at the Illinois State Water Survey to take over three years later, and
the network continued to operate for another decade.
After the demise of the
"official" network in the early 1950’s, Water Survey
scientists were still interested in precipitation amounts across the area,
so raingages were placed at staff members’ homes, and the network
continued. The raingage of choice became the Tru-Chek® wedge-shaped
raingage. The network was fluid — the locations of raingages and
observers changed with staff interest and availability. Although the
number of observers and their locations varied over the years, data were
faithfully charted and filed away each month.
Precipitation data were being
collected mostly out of general interest. That changed dramatically in
July 1992 when the wettest month on record brought torrential rains to
east-central Illinois. It was an excellent opportunity to show just how
variable precipitation can be over a small area. A database was
constructed to process and archive the data, and maps were generated to
show the precipitation distribution.
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The
Boneyard Network Today |
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The network currently consists of volunteer observers in and around Champaign - Urbana, mostly current and former Water Survey staff members.
In 2007 observers participating in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network in Champaign-Urbana were included in the Boneyard Network.
Although it is still called the Boneyard Network, only a few of the current observing sites are actually in the Boneyard Creek basin. Observers make their precipitation measurements at 7:00 a.m. each day. These volunteer observers send their precipitation amounts via electronic mail or phone to the network manager at the Water Survey. Data are entered into the database, and a map of that day’s precipitation is generated and posted to the web site approximately 9:30 a.m. that same day. Network maps are compiled for each precipitation event in the Champaign-Urbana area, and a summary map is compiled at the end of each month.
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How
to Access the Maps |
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The maps of precipitation events are produced using a GIS mapping
program, then saved in Adobe Acrobat format. You may view and download these maps from
this web site.
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Web Presentation
The
Boneyard Network – 50 Years of Precipitation
Measurements in
Champaign-Urbana |
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Steve Hilberg, Illinois State Water Survey.
This presentation chronicles the interesting history of the "Boneyard Network", its contributions to the
climatological history of Champaign-Urbana, and reviews the checkered history of the network's namesake,
the Boneyard Creek. This is a non-technical, historical presentation suitable for most audiences. For more
information, contact Steve Hilberg at hberg@uiuc.edu, (217) 333-8495.
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Last Modified: May 03, 2007
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