ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130021
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: computer bits
WHETHER IT'S FUN OR SOPHISTICATED, our pursuit of weather information can lead to lots of Web sites.
How's the weather? That wasn't a casual question the past week while Virginia residents struggled against the effects of Hurricane Fran. Now, Hurricane Hortense has done ugly things in Puerto Rico and it was on its way Wednesday toward other land masses.
We fear weather, but it also fascinates us. Type "weather" into any Internet search engine and you find out just how much.
The Computer Bits staff got 1,169,615 results on the keyword, "weather," everything from the South African Weather Bureau to weather vanes. At the National Weather Service page, you can type in a city's three-letter code, such as Roa for Roanoke, designate the state it's in and get the current weather.
At 6 Wednesday morning, Roanoke's temperature was 67 and humidity was 100 percent, which you could also tell by going outdoors. But hey, tasting the weather when you're high and dry is more fun. The National Weather Page, which is an excellent site to suggest to a curious youngster, is a project of the University of Michigan Weather Underground Project, the National Science Foundation-funded Unidata Project and Alden Electronics Inc.
People with more sophisticated credentials - pilots and flight crews - can use Universal's Worldwide Weather site to sample weather charts and even get customized flight-plan charts. You also can look at older weather pictures, such as what Hurricane Erin looked like hovering over Pensacola, Fla. on Aug. 3, 1995.
But like many times, some of the best weather information was deeper down in the site listings, namely the Weather Vane Home Page. It's sponsored by Denninger Cupolas & Weather Vanes, a Middleton, N.Y., company with a clever motto: "You Look Up To Us."
Set aside some time because it's fun. Among the questions under the category of For Information Junkies: What the heck is a finial and where would you find one?
Click on the keyword finial (fin-ee-el) and get The American College Dictionary definition as well as a drawing of one and information on which periods of architecture have saluted the decorative topknots for towers, turrets, cupolas and gazebos.
Blacksmith Alfred Denninger and his wife, Beth, of Middletown, N.Y., have been practicing this American folk art since 1988, but the business is just now maturing, she said in a telephone interview.
"We're getting out of the struggling part. This year it feels like it's going to work," she said.
Denninger also said that she and her husband wanted their Web site to do a lot more than promote weather-vane business.
"We want our site to provide what you'd find in a library," she said.
In keeping with that, they include weather-vane news from around the world, a list of people who want to buy, sell and collect antique weather vanes and a list of publications that have information on weather wanes.
For the computer-challenged who read this column anyway, the snail-mail address for Denninger Cupolas and Weather Vanes is R.D. No.1, Box 447W, Middletown, N.Y. 10940-9801; phone or fax is 914-343-2229.
Shorter days fallout
One weather issue just seems to lead to another. Take the issue of shorter days, in which longer periods of darkness lead to low moods for some people.
A Seattle, Wash., lighting company offers a consumer-friendly discussion of circadian rhythm disorders, including Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
At a certain brightness, light has an effect on respiration, blood pressure, body temperature, the body's internal clock and regulation of the production of a chemical called melatonin. If this subject's of interest, this site's a good source. If nothing else, it notes that consumers need to beware of ineffective treatments and products.
People who suffer from bouts of depression, season or otherwise, ought to consult a physician and a mental-health professional, "not a lighting sales person," site builders warn.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE http://www.noaa.gov/nws/nws.html
UNIVERSAL'S WORLDWIDE WEATHER http://www.univ-wea.com/univwx/weather.htm
WEATHERNET: NEW YORK WEATHER and WEATHER SOFTWARE
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/states/newyork.html
WEATHER VANES http://www.denninger.com
SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER http://www.light-link.com/design-studio/reference/sad.html
You can contribute to this column or just comment by sending an E-mail to @biznewsroanoke.infi.net or by calling 981-3393 or 981-3237 in the Roanoke Valley, or 1-800-346-1234, x393, outside the Roanoke area.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 linesby CNB