New Gulf of Alaska weather station erected

The newly installed weather tower. And yep, that's two bears checking it out. David Weagley photo

A new weather station at Cape St. Elias on Kayak Island southeast of Cordova is now available for aiding boats and planes.

The tower measures wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure and solar radiation. The station reports hourly via a satellite link, and you can see the data here.

Two nonprofits and the U.S. Coast Guard worked to erect the tower.

Here's the interesting story that led to the new station.