All about Ray’s Weather Center

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Check out this week’s Mountain Xpress cover story, which is all about Ray’s Weather Center:

In 1998, Ray Russell’s wife gave him a Christmas present that would change everything—a simple backyard weather station that could record rainfall, temperature and wind. Around the same time, the Internet was beginning to take off. For Russell the computer whiz and Russell the weather geek, it amounted to the perfect storm. He started posting his weather data on his Web site, along with his forecasts—which quickly became required reading among ASU students.

Russell appeared on a radio show and found himself being recognized at area restaurants: A local celebrity was born.

Ten years later, Ray’s Weather Center employs five meteorologists who keep tabs on 50 weather stations perched atop schools and businesses around WNC that deliver real-time data to the company’s Web site. The coverage area extends from Boone south to Hickory, including Asheville, Wolf Laurel and Waynesville to the west. They’re working on setting up a new station in Sylva and hope to add still more around the region.