Fog Lifts Over Valley Weather Station

A weather station wildly popular with climate aficionados for recording some of Los Angeles’ most extreme temperatures is back online, more than two weeks after a computer glitch silenced it.

The Pierce College station in Woodland Hills -- which recorded a record-breaking 119-degree reading in July -- had been unable to transmit data since Oct. 2, prompting frustration among weather watchers.

A new computer security firewall was to blame. It kept hackers off the college’s computer network, but also kept the data-spewing weather station mum.

Doreen Clay, a college spokeswoman, said the firewall problem was repaired, but then another problem surfaced.

A newly donated computer used to communicate with the station had to be reconfigured.

“Sometimes when you do two things at the same time, you don’t realize you’ve caused yourself more headaches,” Clay said.

The weather station, described by one meteorologist as the “Rolls-Royce of local weather stations,” is a rarity for the consistency of its data because it has never been moved from its original location, away from parking lots and buildings that can affect temperature readings.

It went back online at 4:01 p.m. Wednesday, Clay said.

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