SCCF weather stations destroyed by Hurricane Ian, operational again

Southwest Florida is steadily marking recovery milestones in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The powerful storm had swept away all three weather stations of the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF).

After nearly two and a half years, the RECON Weather System is back online, bringing vital information to the community.

This development is particularly beneficial for the boating community. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there were more than 50,000 registered boaters in Lee County in 2022.

Access to real-time weather information is crucial for ensuring their safety while navigating the waters.

AJ Martignette, a marine lab manager for the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, highlighted the capabilities of the newly restored weather stations.

“It’s going to give you your current wind speed, your wind direction, and then your wind gust, or the maximum wind speed during that sample period. It also gives you temperature,” said Martignette.

These stations also provide real-time data on humidity and more, which is especially helpful during storms like Hurricane Ian.

“We got 125 MPH gust recorded at our Redfish Pass site before it went offline. But we provided all that data to these modelers who are basically building the models to predict how future storms are to act,” said Martignette.

The data from these stations is also invaluable to meteorologists at WINK News, like Nikki Sheaks.

“It’s going to be great when a storm is approaching, so that we’re able to see how strong those winds are, and that’s going to help us with weather, determining if the storm is going to be strengthening weakening,” said Sheaks.

The Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation and Lee County understand the importance of this information for boaters. Despite the long wait to get the stations back online, the foundation remained committed to their mission.

“We like it for the science, but the funding agency is for boater information. That’s the reason they funded in the first place, was for the sort of the boater community has access to this, real time on the scene, weather data to help them make decisions,” said Martignette.

Funding for these stations came from the West Coast Inland Navigation District and Lee County. For those interested in up-to-the-minute information.

Click here to see the live weather station data.