Local YouTube Meteorologist Deploys Full Weather Arsenal For 25-MPH Wind Event

WAUKESHA — A Canadian cold front is expected to move into southeastern Wisconsin Thursday, bringing wind gusts up to 25 mph and overnight temperatures dropping into the 50s, according to National Weather Service guidance carried by area television stations. For most of Waukesha, this means a jacket. For Backslide Way resident Ned England, 70, it means Wednesday night was for equipment installation.

England, a meteorology hobbyist known to the 420 subscribers of his YouTube channel Nedventuresout and, separately, to the three subscribers of his general-conditions channel Nedsmokedout, spent roughly two and a half hours Wednesday evening installing a supplementary anemometer on a 6-foot mast at the rear corner of his lawn, roughly 40 feet from the handheld unit he already owns.

"Redundancy," England said, tightening a hose clamp by flashlight. "One anemometer tells you a number. Two anemometers, in two locations, on two different mounting heights, tell you a story."

Three Angles, One Front

England has planned three separate camera setups for Thursday's event: a stationary tripod aimed at the new mast-mounted anemometer, a handheld phone rig for what he calls "walking wind," and a dashboard mount in his Chevrolet Equinox for what he calls "mobile gusts," to be filmed during a planned loop of Northview Road and back.

"Twenty-five miles an hour doesn't sound like much until you're the one holding the camera," England said. "I've had the tripod go over in less. I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying it to explain the helmet."

Asked about the helmet, a yellow bicycle helmet visible on his porch railing, England confirmed it was "precautionary" and "not required by anyone, including my family."

"Twenty-five miles an hour doesn't sound like much until you're the one holding the camera."

— Ned England, Nedventuresout

Hourly Reports, Filed As A Public Service

England said he intends to file wind-speed reports "every hour, on the hour" to local television stations throughout Thursday evening, a practice he began informally in June and has continued despite what he described as "no direct confirmation anyone reads them."

"I don't do it for credit," England said. "I do it because if a tree comes down on Backslide Way at 8 p.m. and I clocked 24 miles an hour at 7:52, that's useful. That's a timeline. Somebody should have a timeline."

He said the reports would include sustained speed, peak gust, and, per his own addition to the format, "how many of my neighbor's patio chairs have moved since the last report." As of Wednesday night, the count for the Kabara patio set stood at zero.

The Lamppost Method Does Not Apply

England was quick to clarify that his nine-lamppost visibility count, developed for smoke and haze documentation from the Frame Park pedestrian bridge, is "a different instrument for a different problem" and will not be used Thursday.

"People keep asking about the lampposts," he said. "Wind isn't a visibility event. Wind is a force event. You don't count lampposts in a force event. You'd use the flagpole out front of the VFW, if you wanted a visual, which I do have on the list as a backup angle."

A Family Installation

Wednesday's mast installation required a second set of hands, and England's son Trevor, who lives at home, held the base plate steady while England leveled the mast against a torpedo level balanced on the crossbar.

"He had me check it three times," Trevor England said. "Then he checked it a fourth time himself. I don't think he trusts the level or me, exactly. I think he trusts the combination."

Troy England, who rents the upper duplex unit, watched the installation from his kitchen window for several minutes before opening it to ask, unprompted, whether the mast was rated for anything above 25 mph, "because it's supposed to gust higher than that by Friday, if you believe the app." England said he did not believe the app, but that he had a second anemometer coming "just in case the first one is right and the app is wrong."

"I have a second anemometer coming just in case the first one is right and the app is wrong."

— Ned England, on backup equipment

What The Forecast Actually Says

The National Weather Service outlook England is working from calls for gusts up to 25 mph as the front passes Thursday, with overnight lows in the 50s behind it, conditions the agency has characterized as unremarkable for late August in southeastern Wisconsin. No wind advisory has been issued.

England acknowledged this. "They're not calling it an advisory. I understand that. I'm not saying it's an advisory. I'm saying it's a documentable event, and I have the equipment to document it, and I would rather have three angles and no advisory than an advisory and no angles."

Late Wednesday, England walked the yard once more with the handheld unit, checking the new mast anemometer against it. Both read calm. He wrote the numbers down anyway.

"Baseline," he said. "You need a baseline, or Thursday doesn't mean anything."

The cold front is expected to arrive Thursday afternoon. Ned England's hourly wind reports will be filed regardless of whether any station requests them. Nedsmokedout currently has three subscribers.