Kenosha County celebrates Arbor Day with unveiling of innovative weather station

KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis (WRJN) – Arbor day events in Kenosha County will include a look at the first-of-its-kind weather station in the area. At 5pm Friday night, the Kenosha County Arbor Day Tree Planting Ceremony will take place at the Bristol Center.

After the 4-H make a presentation, officials with UW-Madison will show off an automated weather station. It’s part of the university’s statewide Wisconet network, which reports real-time data from 21 locations across Wisconsin. The Kenosha County Center location is the first Wisconet station in southeastern Wisconsin.

The festivities will kick off with a tree arts exhibit showcasing the work of members of the Kenosha County 4-H program. At 6 p.m., officials from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will inaugurate the weather station, located on the County Center grounds.

Extension Kenosha County Horticulture Educator, Vijai Pandian, will lead a tree-planting ceremony at 6:15 p.m., joined by Kenosha County officials. Attendees will have the opportunity to take home and plant tree saplings distributed by the county. Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman expressed her enthusiasm for the event, stating, “Arbor Day is a time to celebrate the beautiful trees that surround us, and to pass that blessing onto future generations by planting new seeds in the ground.”

Supervisor Guida Brown, the newly appointed chair of the County Board’s Planning, Development, and Extension Education Committee, encouraged the community to participate in the celebration and learn more about Kenosha County’s diverse native trees. She emphasized the significance of the County Center grounds, which house an educational arboretum, and expressed gratitude for the collaboration with UW-Madison that led to the installation of the weather station.

The weather station is part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s statewide Wisconet network, which captures real-time data from 21 locations across Wisconsin. The station will provide valuable information such as air temperature, relative humidity, dewpoint, soil temperature and moisture, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. This data, updated every 15 minutes, will be publicly accessible through an online dashboard at www.go.wisc.edu/bristolweather.

Kenosha County Center’s location marks the first Wisconet station in southeastern Wisconsin. Extension agriculture educator, Vijai Pandian, highlighted the significance of the weather station in monitoring the resilience of the trees in the arboretum and assisting residents in monitoring plant pest and growing conditions.

For those interested in exploring the Kenosha County Center Prairie & Arboretum, a self-guided tour of its trees is available.