Update on my efforts.
Part 1 (maintenance station):
This is the latest reply from the state:
Yes, that particular cam is operated by a maintenance group (not the weather group), and they likely won't get out to it until springtime.
Our current 5-year plan for our weather stations does not include Strawberry. There is little we usually do to change that, unless we can justify it for UDOT operations, specifically. Each station install costs $50,000-$100,000, plus a few more thousand $$ per year for maintenance. If there are a group of you that would like to install a weather station, I would suggest going through the MesoWest or the National Weather Service on getting it set up - it could cost much, much less, as it would be a citizen (co-op) station. Lots of folks do this at their own personal residences. Major hurtles are often unable to be overcome, however, such as land rights issues, an available power source, and available communication to the site.
This was my reply:
Thank you for your reply. You actually addressed my concernsâ€â€land rights, power source, and communications. That is why I was wondering if we could purchase a personal weather station and install it at the Strawberry Maintenance Station where it could be of us and potentially to the state. You have the land, power (although the station could use solar), and communications. Is there any possibility of this? *Fingers Crossed* If we hooked it up with MesoWest would that help the process (i.e. does the UofU have any pull)?
Thanks so much for your time! Please let me know if there is anything we can do to make this work for the state.
Part 2 (Central Utah Water Conservancy District)
I'm also going try and get the Central Utah Water Conservancy District to get their web page working and possible get their data on MesoWest.
Part 3 (MesoWest)
I just sent this email to a contact I’ve made at MesoWest:
Thanks so much for your help on this. Does MesoWest just do reporting or do you also generate weather models/forecasts? If you do, is there any way to get some hyper-accurate wind forecast for a few different places? I could have you swimming in beer (or cool-aide if you prefer) for a year from some grateful wind-chasers if you can help with this. (Too often we drive to a place because NOAA says the wind is going to blow, only to stand around waiting for wind.)
We’ll see if I can make anything happen. Every time I stand around for hours because the wind forecast was wrong I get a little more motivated.