The weather forecasts on TownDock.net have always relied upon the closest National Weather Service weather station for current conditions - it's at Cherry Point some 10 miles away.

But the current conditions 10 miles away at the Marine Air Station haven’t always jived with those in Oriental. It can be raining here in Oriental and sunny at Cherry Point - or vice versa.

We’ve fixed that, and today we introduce that solution – The Oriental Weather Station. It will bring you current weather conditions from our town.

An anemometer sits high atop a pole recording wind speed and direction.

The weather station gets power from that little solar panel. The TownDock.net dog is mildly nervous that this new machine could put her out of her previous job as The Dog Fur Wind Gauge.

The Oriental Weather Station does a lot.

It constantly measures temperature, rainfall, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction - and then reports in. The geekier staff members at TownDock.net are quite impressed with this weather station.

For instance, it wirelessly transmits its data back to an indoor console. That console connects to a computer...that reports that data back to the TownDock.net server every 15 minutes. That constantly updated Oriental Weather data is then combined with data from the National Weather Service - and presto - the weather forecast on TownDock is created.

The current conditions you read about on TownDock.net will be updated every 15 minutes.

What’s more, it runs on solar power – the batteries get enough of a charge through the day to continue to take readings through the sunless hours. So you really can get an update every 15 minutes day and night.

This diagram explains how it all works:

When you go to the weather on TownDock.net you will see the latest current conditions from the weather station at the top of the page. There are the current temp and winds - plus - how hot did it get today? How high did the wind get? How much rain? It's all there - click here.

If it is raining or the wind is up - go to the TownDock weather page and refresh the page every few minutes. Every 15 minutes new data will be there.

Plus if you click on to the "details" page ( look for where it says "Click here for more detailed information from The Oriental Weather Station") you will find info on wind, temperature and barometric pressure patterns from recent days - as well as the current information. As we learn more about the weather station more data will be presented on the "details" page.

Marine Weather Too

We think the new Oriental Weather Station will provide a great service here in town.

Meanwhile, TownDock.net continues to offer what we think is the most user-friendly Marine Forecast you’ll find on the internet - period. For the Marine Forecasts, we use the info from the National Weather Service - but if you click here, you’ll see it is in a more easily understandable format than you find elsewhere. Especially those wind forecasts.

As well as the Pamlico Sound Marine Weather you can also find Marine Weather for all locations on the North Carolina coast - and beyond.

We can’t guarantee fair winds and great sailing, but we think you’ll find the Marine Forecast among the easiest to read.

TownDock.net is here for Oriental Weather and Marine Weather - 24 hours a day.

We may still use the Dog Fur Wind Gauge in winds exceeding 60 mph.

A TownDock thank you to Oriental weekend resident Jim Goodmon. The weather station was his idea - and he made it happen. One morning while having coffee at The Bean Jim asked how we got the local conditions. "Cherry Point" we replied...."it's the closest NOAA weather station."

Jim was not impressed. "That’s not close enough...we need an Oriental Weather Station." Jim can be persuasive - and agreed to provide the weather station if senior TownDock engineering personnel would make it work.

We hope you enjoy it.....