Realtime info on local Air Quality and Weather close by Goodnow Flow in Newcomb NY

I have automated environmental monitoring packages running at a Lot adjacent to this artificial Newcomb lake. A Davis Vantage Vue II unit (Goodnow Libre) logs weather basics, this info is not unique but is hyper-local. My Davis AirLink (Goodnow Unaffiliated) records air quality and generates Air Quality Index (AQI) numbers. This is an independent initiative and has no direct affiliation with the lake HOA.

Davis Vantage Vue II ‘Goodnow Libre’

Public online access to Weather and Newcomb Air Quality Information

  • Phones/tablets: Use the WeatherLink App for simple but comprehensive access to local Newcomb forecasts and data from my weather and air quality monitors. Search ‘(Davis) WeatherLink‘ in the Android and iOS app stores. Load and launch then enter ‘Goodnow‘ as the station to get the Newcomb-related page.
  • In a browser: For forecasts and my weather data try this Weather Underground link (much easier than trying to search the location in the Wunderground.com site). However, Wunderground doesn’t pick up the air quality data that I’m generating.
  • In a browser: To get straight to the data use this WeatherLink web link to reach the right page. First time in you need to create login credentials (stick with free options). You get data but you don’t get forecasts.
  • Live View: You can also see what is happening using my updating lake webcam, I currently have that page flip-flopping between two cameras.

An Air Quality Monitor for Newcomb NY AQI measurements

I added an AirLink monitor in the fall of 2024. I generally don’t have ‘lung issues’ but in 2022 I could tell there were some bad days with the smoke from Up North. Summer is Firetime but I figured I’d get base-line data running the monitor over the winter. Its just a solid-state device in a box. There is supposed to be a particle reading laser inside and I’m guessing its something like the laser diode in DVD players – no death rays at the Flow this season. The device counts and bins particles into size classes. There are three scored classes 1, 2.5 and 10 micron (the smaller the particles the deeper they can penetrate the lungs). The Davis instrument apparently scored well for the 2.5 micron class, the one used for AQI calculation, in an assessment against reference methods. Ozone is not monitored.

AQI - particulate scores and health

I’ve see a couple of spikes from a low background but readings generally seem to stay in the green zone (October 2024). There is no local source for AQI, its not reported by the NY Mesonet station running locally at SUNY ESF. The major weather sites may give AQI numbers but these are regional, not local.

In 2022, coming back from Potsdam with the Northern wildfires running, I there seemed to be bands of air pollution – the air was clear in Long Lake but was smoky at a lake in Newcomb and it was noticeably harder to breath. Thats why I’m interested in local numbers over the regional AQI reports from NY DoH and elsewhere.

Monitoring Goodnow Lakeside conditions, and the related data flows

My monitoring devices are from Davis Instruments. the units send a wireless signal back to a base unit in my cabin and the data gets sent online using SLIC fiber internet to the WeatherLink service. On WeatherLink.com you can search for pages additional to mine but its best to use the direct link to my WeatherLink pages. You need to set up a free login, don’t bother with upgrades/upsells. On my WeatherLink page you can pick an ugly text-based rendition of data (which is what I generally use) or toggle over to a graph view that I find too busy with stuff I don’t use. Also take a look at my Newcomb ‘climate‘ page.

Weather underground (Wunderground) gets an update of conditions from weatherLink every 10 or 15 minutes. The Wunderground ‘KNYNEWCO3’ page can give you Newcomb forecasts for various durations (hour to 10 days). I generally use this for forecasts. However this site doesn’t pick up the AQI data. This site is useful for no-cost access to an archive of my weather station data in addition to reporting current conditions. There are Wunderground ‘phone Apps that give the forecasts but you can’t get at my current or archived data so there is no compelling reason to use them.

For a one -stop look at current conditions plus forecasts I recommend the (Davis) WeatherLink phone/tablet Apps. Its a clean simple layout and you get the AQI information. Enter ‘Goodnow’ as the station. I don’t know who generates their forecasts.