Jefferson County NY Weather Station & Webcams

About the Website, Webcams, & Weather Station

This site provides current and historical weather data for the Jefferson County/Watertown area of New York State in the US. It also displays static webcam images that update around every hour or half hour during the daylight hours and only during daylight hours, using an automated piece of software. When there is a weather-specific event we increase the update rates during the event, so keep checking back.

The location is a few miles north of Watertown, NY - webcam 1 is looking approximately southward somewhat toward the general direction of the city, and at the top of a hill at around 448 feet elevation and webcam 2 is at a lower elevation looking approximately northward. The weather station sensor array is situated nearby the weather cameras.

Over the years we have switched out and in some cases had to replace various cameras and hardware, a bit of history below.

The first webcam we used was a Connectix/Logitech Quickcam VC, it worked great for many years but after being exposed to the sun for years the camera lost its ability to display colors very well.

Later we used a CleverCam 360 and a Creative Labs webcam, and sometimes a capture card with a camcorder, a wireless camera, or a camcorder on a Firewire card. For many years the camera was the excellent Logitech Orbit webcam. This is the one with Carl Zeiss® optics, auto-focus, fairly high resolution, zoom, and motorized mounts so that it can automatically swivel to follow a face or motion (with the right software). It also sees fairly well in very light. It was used as a static cam but someday we had planned on offering the ability of visitors to remotely control it. The camera began intermittently working and had to be replaced. We then used a Tecknet Model C016 webcam for a while.

Next, we used a Logitech C120, the camera and software had been relocated from running on my home office computer with a view from my window to a dedicated (but fairly old) computer with a more unobstructed and wider view. The webcam itself was safely protected from the elements with a glass window. Unfortunately, the camera (depending on the time of the year) could sometimes be subject to a slight glare in the morning.

Some time later we relocated the whole system to another building on the property with a dedicated computer, where the system for Webcam 1 still sits, the computer protected from the elements.

Later we added Webcam 2 using the Tecknet Model C016. This was originally run on an older model spare computer situated down the hill a short distance with an elevation of about 10 feet less than the first webcam. It points in roughly the opposite direction from the first camera and gives a view of the chicken house yard and weather conditions along an open field beyond the yard, looking approximately northward. The computer has since been updated.

Most recently the Logitech for Webcam 1 began malfunctioning and we switched to an Xtreme Tech 1080P webcam and we experimented with grabbing still images off the excellent HD-quality Amcrest Outdoor IP Camera. This worked great but seemed to be overkill so we went back to a regular webcam, a NexiGo N908P 1080P wide-angle webcam, protected from the elements with a security camera globe.

On the local webcam computers we previously had used the very old but venerable Webcam32 software, but because of limitations we eventually switched to the more modern Yawcam software for image capture and upload. This runs on a pair of PC's running Windows.

The site is hosted at Interserver.net and built on the frontend toolkit Bootstrap. Previously we had run it on Wordpress using the Mantra Theme with some modifications, and relevant plugins, but as of late 2024 switched to Bootstrap during a re-design.

If you would like some basic information on setting up a webcam system using an old computer and a webcam check out my blog post.

During the Blizzard of 2022/Christmas 2022 we received a Logia 7-in-1 Weather Station Model LOWSCx10SWB, which worked flawlessly for a number of years but eventually malfunctioned and had to be replaced. We replaced it with the excellent Ambient Weather WS-2902, attached to the top of an Army-surplus antenna mast beside our greenhouse, about eight feet in the air.

The weather data which is displayed on this site was previously shown via the data applet/gadget code that we found from MRE Software. We thank the author/programmer for this great code that allows accessing the WeatherUnderground API and we also want to thank WeatherUnderground for providing a free (for low traffic) API as well as Ambient Weather for making a great piece of hardware and allowing interfacing to other weather sites, as well as a free API for direct access.

After a bit of tweaking for a few customizations, we had the PHP for the MRE Software gadget exactly how we wanted it. Originally we were going to grab the data from WeatherUnderground via the API's JSON code and process it on one of my home server computers, and then shoot it back to the HTML installation. But the code from MRE Software was a much easier and more elegant solution than mine! And we also used it as a basis for grabbing the temperature separately and displaying it outside of the widget.

But as of early 2026, we've given our weather section a major code overhaul! We did this in conjunction with various help from multiple AI agents, both remote and locally hosted. The old MRE widget has been replaced with our own custom-coded version that's more responsive and pulls data directly from the Ambient Weather API and the weather station, storing (on the server) and analyzing some of our own data from that data. We are still tweaking and improving this. We also added 24-hour history charts (thanks to Chart.js), as well as monthly, yearly, and total records. And a new sun/moon phase display (thanks to Suncalc). We also added different forecasts, which uses some of the data from the station for more hyper-local forecasting. Also, we have added weather radar with lightning tracking, via Windy.com.

A lot of tweaking and work and trial and error went into this — especially to make sure the site plays nice with browsers like Brave. We've optimized the code so that even if you have 'aggressive shields' or ad-blockers turned on, you should still see all the weather data and charts without any issues. If data is not displayed properly (especially in Brave), do a reload of the tab and see what happens. There is a slight delay when some of the stats and charts are loaded, to make things more compatible and to assure that everything plays nice with everything else.

This station is proud to be a data provider for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS). By transmitting real-time meteorological data through the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) and the MADIS network, this station assists meteorologists in local forecast verification, emergency management, and climate research. Our participation ensures that hyper-local weather conditions in Jefferson County, NY are represented in the national dataset, contributing to more accurate weather models for the entire community. Thank you to AmbientCWOP for providing an easy gateway for this process.

NOAA Weather Warnings provided by WillyWeather.com.

Please feel free to contact me if the camera doesn't seem to be working or with any other issue, or with suggestions.

Also, check out my other websites on my links page.

If you are inclined, feel free to donate if you wish, using the donate button to the upper right or donate at Paypal or BuyMeACoffee, or use my Amazon affiliate link. It is used for the hosting, and upgrades like better webcams.