Friday, November 1, 2013

500,000 Served

Sometime this weekend, the Wasatch Weather Weenies will be viewed for the 500,000th time. Readership today is far greater than I could have imagined when I started this blog on October 1, 2010.  We average about 800 page views a day during benign weather, with peaks approaching 2,000 prior to and during major winter storms.  All I can say is thanks so much for the interest.

Popular Posts
The most frequently viewed post is Let's Rock from April 25, 2012.  The popularity of this post is purely unintentional and a consequence of a title that is apparently commonly searched for on the internet and the use of a photo of Homer Simpson.

Let's Rock: April 25, 2012
I suspect that most of the 39,000 people that have viewed that post have been sorely disappointed to find out that it's about a tropical moisture surge in the southwest.

Rounding out the top 10:
Challenges
The Wasatch Weather Weenies has a fairly diverse audience ranging from professional meteorologists to the general public.  I have professional responsibilities to both groups and have dealt with this by varying the technical content of the posts.  Some are probably more appropriate for professional meteorologists, and others for the general public.  I suspect this will continue in the future.  Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions concerning the content of the posts.  

The Wasatch Weather Weenies first winter was 2010-11, a year that Wasatch skiers will remember forever (see Alta 800).  That winter I skied many days (how many will remain a secret forever in order to protect my job...) and the best way to "discover" material for this blog is to be in the mountains experiencing the weather.  That may be difficult this year as I am currently suffering through some difficult back problems.  Thus, bear with me as I get to the mountains less frequently and look at things remotely.  Send me some good vibes!

8 comments:

  1. Congrats Jim! I have occasionally thought that it would be fun to do a blog, but I suspect it is fairly difficult to build up an audience and post often enough to keep people checking it. You have done a good job of it and I enjoy reading and sharing ideas on these topics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great milestone! As a member of the "general public"I think you do a great job. Is it possible to now get a mini doppler for my Subaru?;) We all hope the back heals up well, and the powder is light and deep this year Steve S.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim, before my wife and I purchased a house very near U of U for our annual, season-long snowboard retreat, we had spent 9 winter seasons spending 3 or 4 months each in a rental in 8 different regions. SLC was the only region we repeated and one of the important reasons was that weather and condition information in the Wasatch was readily available from multiple sources (thus keepping all of the sources pretty honest). Your blog was called to our attention quite early in the first season and has been a daily source of information ever since.

    In all honesty, my wife preferred SLC culture and cuisine over, say Bend, Or., for culture and I delighted in your columns.

    You actually have played a fairly significant role in our selection to make camp in the Wasatch every winter from now until I can't bend over enough to tie my snowboard boots and since I can still touch my toes without bending my knees, even though I am past 70 and our 50th anniversary will be next Jan 1, I expect that to be quite a few winters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats Jim! As a member of the general public, and your favorite sister, I make frequent visits to your blog to see how things are going in that part of the country! I am partial to "The Untold Story of How Santa Claus Really Comes to Town", but have shown many of your maps and pictures to kids when I have been teaching. Keep up the good work! Jill

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for all your hard work at work and on this blog. Congrats on the milestone - I'm happy to count myself in that number! As a fellow Aves resident and backcountry play person it's nice to have such a personally relevant perspective on the weather. The mix of technical and not-so-technical posts are nice for a lay weather junkie. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I remember being in your Synoptic classes the year this blog was started, and I have been following it ever since. Thanks for providing all the info you do, I still am learning even though I left that classroom 2 years ago!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jim,

    I've been enjoying the blog for a little over a year now and really enjoy learning more about the local weather phenomena that Utah provide (we met on the Beer Bus Tour). I'm sure there are many lurking armchair meteorologists out there enjoying the commentary.

    I hope the back heals and your are out enjoying winter with the rest of us. Let's hope for a good constant dose of storms this winter, so you don't have too many consecutive days to hypothesize about the swishing PM 2.5 about the valley!

    Jason B.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jim,
    This blog is truly the hidden gem of the Wasatch. My winter consists of checking the UAC site and WWWeanies every morning for the up to date gossip on the worlds best snow. I appreciate your laid back style of giving me the goods. Thanks. and ski on!

    ReplyDelete