To ensure rumors and inaccurate information will not be spread concerning this recent incident, I wish to make a formal PSA on my newsletter and weather blogs.

I am no longer doing consulting work for Earth Networks/Davis Instruments/AEM. This week, AEM (Earth Networks and Davis Instruments’ parent company) terminated their consulting agreement with me, effective at the end of the month, but I am no longer involved in further work but am winding down operations (I don’t even have access to my company email or logins or company-issued computer).

I have been working for Earth Networks (when it was known as AWS/WeatherBug) for about twenty years (since I was a teenager). Originally I was an internal employee/intern with them, but I was moved to an outside IT consultant when WeatherBug had planned to launch the “WeatherBug Home”/SmartThings partnership since they needed to reimburse me for the SmartThings equipment I would be testing for them, and that required me to work as an outside IT consultant for them instead of an internal employee. When the WeatherBug brand was sold to xAd/GroundTruth, I stayed on at the “mother ship” (Earth Networks) as an IT consultant, handling activities such as producing webinars (including training government agencies leading to major upsells for the company), screencast videos, product documentation/manuals, and for a while, I’ve been handling front-line email support for Davis Instruments, dramatically speeding up the response time of their email support.

Long-term, I will be in a better position moving forward. While I had started out with AWS/WeatherBug/Earth Networks at a low pay as a teenager and intern, I continued to receive below-minimum-wage payment from the client even post-graduation from my Master’s and PhD programs (while the company was securing massive contracts and paying colleagues I would work with “in the trenches” substantially more). Coupled with handing outstanding/late invoices each month from the client, as well as the client gradually attempting to transition the relationship from a consultant/client relationship to functioning as an employer/employee relationship outside the bounds of the consultant agreement (conflicting with with my current, full-time employment), the situation would have impacted my physical and spiritual health long-term. While my consulting services attempted to restore the consultant/client relationship with the client, the client decided to terminate the agreement and part ways with my consulting services instead of restoring the previous relationship.

Moving forward, this will place me in a better position to work with companies either as a consultant or an employee in a position and salary more aligned with my degree and with better overall structure and better for my overall health and wellbeing. I had a long road and accumulated about twenty years of work experience and product knowledge during my time at Earth Networks/Davis Instruments/AEM. I had an opportunity to work alongside some great colleagues (I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to say goodbye to any of my current colleagues!) and serve a wealth of customers over the years. I am doing well financially as I am employed full-time with Accordance Bible Software and will be focusing all of my efforts on my work at Accordance. With that said, I am also in a position where I can take on some part-time side work as a consultant or part-time employee for another organization who would make use of my talent and services while continuing to serve Accordance’s family of customers full-time. You can learn more about me and see my resume and academic CV at my website at parkernathan.com, as well as follow me there to see what the next chapter will be in my life. I will continue to write for my newsletter and write weekly weather reports for my weather blog (although I will have access to a little less weather data moving forward). I will no longer be able to keep my current Earth Networks/Davis weather equipment and HD Camera online, but I do have an on-site Tempest weather station and PurpleAir air quality sensor I will be keeping online.

In the meantime, if you are grateful for the work I did serving you over the years, feel free to purchase my PhD dissertation, shop on my Patreon shop or Buy Me a Chicken Sandwich page, purchase or stream my Christmas album, or become a paid subscriber of my newsletter on Substack or Patreon.

I want to thank all of the customers I had the privilege and honor of serving over the years I worked for Earth Networks/Davis Instruments/AEM and for the colleagues I served alongside over the years during my time there. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store next for me in this next chapter of my life!

I received an email today from CoCoRaHS which clarifies some good information about reporting snow and winter conditions to them. For those who haven’t read the email yet, here’s an excerpt from it from Nolan and the CoCoRaHS team:

A good question about reporting snow.

I received this question this morning from a North Carolina weather watcher, and realized it may be relevant for many of us.

“I viewed the videos and PDF presentation on measuring snow, but I’m still a little confused about the recording requirements. Can you tell me if all of the blocks need to be filled out that are related to snow, or, if not, what is the required information that should always be entered?”

Here is how I answered:
The first priority, of course, is the precipitation amount — rain plus the melted water content from any snow and ice that fell. Beyond that it’s at your discretion.  Personally, I try to fill out all values every day.   For example, even on dry days with no precipitation and no snow remaining on the ground,  I type in and submit 0.0 so that it confirms no snow. That is ideal but not required.  The only required field is “rain and melted snow ” (i.e. the water content of the precip)  All other fields (new snow, core sample water content of new snow, total depth of old/new snow, and water content of total snow on ground (the SWE)) are greatly appreciated.  But they are not required.  Measure and report what you can.  Leave the others NA if you don’t take those measurements.

Snow Depth — the depth of snow (both old and new) remaining on the ground at your observation time.

I’ve noticed that quite a few of us skip this measurement, or report it only when new snow has fallen.  But arguably it my be the single most important reading of any of our snow observations since it relates most closely to the impact snow is having on transportation, recreation and public safety in an area.  You can infer a lot about the character of the snow, too, from day to day changes in snow depth.  Many people tell me it’s a difficult measurement.  I would argue it’s OK to start with an estimate — maybe just by looking out your window. With uneven snow it may be very difficult to determine if you have an average depth of 3.0, 4.0 or 5.5″ — but it’s easy to estimate if it’s closest to 1″, 4″, 8″ or 12″. Once it’s more than 12″ it gets challenging again, and you may do best to have a semi-permanent ‘snow stake” mounted in the ground in a convenient location.  For more info on measuring snow depth (as opposed to new snowfall): https://youtu.be/2zbDygoJ2D4

“Condition Reports” —

Are you getting wetter or drier?  Is your winter snowpack greater or less than average?  How about the streams around you?  Are they flowing more or less than “normal” for this time of year?  Add value to your CoCoRaHS precipitation reports by adding weekly “Condition” updates.  https://cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=condition

Winter precipitation measurement made easy (or at least easier) — use your kitchen scale

If you’ve got a kitchen scales that reads to the nearest gram, you may be in luck: https://cocorahs.org/media/docs/Training_SnowByWeight.pdf

Freezing rain

Based on historical experience, January and  February are the core months of the freezing rain season.  Do you know how to measure and report freezing rain?  If not, don’t wait until its glazing .  https://youtu.be/rLwlaP_CFl8