Please visit the following page to view our privacy policy: Privacy Policy
A ThirdAveWebcamAndWeather tutorial has been written to introduce the user to the features of this application and its use. Please select the following link to view it: Tutorial.
ThirdAveSuite is an iPhone/iPad/AppleWatch application that is dedicated to monitoring the Third Avenue kiteboarding and sailboarding weather instrument and Webcam mounted on top of the Gilead Sciences building at 303 Velocity Way in Foster City, CA.
The weather instrument being used is a Davis Vantage Pro2, and the weather information is served using a Meteohub weather server. The data is collected every 15 seconds (or so) and posted in Weather Display Live format to the Arbor-Studios website. The data is acquired on the same schedule by the iPhone application.
ThirdAveWind displays different background images and audio based on wind speed and direction.
The default setting for audio is OFF as a consideration to those who might be checking conditions at 3rd during meetings.
The Webcam is an AXIS Pan Tilt Zoom network camera that takes 12 static images and then an additional 28 images that are stitched into a panoramic view of the site, approximately 200 degrees from northboard facing Third Ave to past the southbound facing Third Ave. The images are updated approximately every 5 minutes 24 hours a day, and at night the camera switches to infrared views.
We would like to thank Scott Ellington for letting us use his photograph on our splash screen. We would also like to thank Clark Beckstead for his photograph of 3rd Avenue looking toward Coyote Point at sunset.
In April, 2010, an experimental version of ThirdAveSuite was deployed that eliminates the conversion from knots to mph for wind speed values. The intention of this change was to accommodate the differences between observed wind speed values on the Gilead roof, where the weather sensors are located, and the observed wind speed values at the corner by the sailboarding ramp. Since that deployment the values displayed in these apps have been aligned much better with the observed values at the sailboard ramp. In fact, the values in the apps now appear to be between the values at the sailboard ramp and the values at the channel marker, whereas the values from the weather sensor align better with the values at the channel marker or values at the SFO sensor. As such, this change was made permanent, and users of ThirdAveSuite should know that the values displayed in these apps are not observed values but were intended to comply with our goal of providing accurate information on the kiting/sailboarding conditions at 3rd Avenue.
In 2021 a new Axis PTZ camera and a new WeatherFlow Tempest weather station were installed and made functional. At the same time, the website interface underwent a migration from Flash to HTML5 and a new library (steel gauges) was used to render the weather data. The new webcam has higher resolution and better low light capabilities, resulting ion much better imagery. The new weather instrument is all digital (no moving parts) so will hopefully be more reliable and durable.
ThirdAveWebcamAndWeather was an outgrowth of ThirdAveSuite and designed to work on Apple LTE/5G-generation iPhones running iOS 11 or better. It will no longer work with earlier iPhone models. If you find that the application is crashing on startup please contact ArborStudios and we will try to help diagnose the problem.
Space Provided By Hurricane Electric