WEATHER STATION SUFFERS NET FREEZE-OUT PIERCE COLLEGE WORKING TO GET CLIMATE DATA BACK ONLINE.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS -- Weather hounds hot for temperatures at the San Fernando Valley's oldest weather station have been tossed out in the cold.

A computer glitch has crippled the 57-year-old Pierce College weather station for weeks, forcing fans around the world to forgo their Woodland Hills weather fix.

``We're under the weather here, for sure,'' said Steve Woodruff, a Van Nuys Airport weather station supervisor who oversees the Pierce College Station for the National Weather Service. ``It's generating hundreds of e-mails a day from all over the world.''

On Oct. 2, a computer-security firewall intended to thwart Internet hackers cut the station's online connection to its popular weather Web site.

Up-to-the minute temperatures, humidity and wind reports suddenly ceased being broadcast.

To ensure continuity at one of the nation's most reliable weather stations, station operators have phoned forecasters with daily afternoon reports.

``We have no control over getting that (computer) up,'' said Jamie Meier of the National Weather Service in Oxnard, which is also tied into the station, ``other than putting the pressure on them'' to get it fixed.

In the meantime, station operators have replaced their aging computer and have recorded a wealth of data.

The Pierce College Station, unmoved since 1949, is tucked away from hot campus parking lots and buildings that could mar accurate weather readings. For this reason, climate buffs consider it to be among the most accurate and reliable in the world.

On July 22, the west campus station recorded the hottest temperature ever in Los Angeles, a smoking 119 degrees. The coldest L.A. temperature was recorded Feb. 6, 1989, a frigid 18 degrees.

Pierce College professor William H. Russell, the station's weather director, and his former student Woodruff have spent thousands of dollars out of pocket to keep the station running.

``It's the Rolls Royce of weather stations,'' said Bill Patzert, climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. ``This weather station put Pierce College on the map. The weather geeks definitely feel dissed. It's like putting people off their morning coffee -- they need their weather fix.''

On Tuesday, college computer tech wizards thought they had the problem solved -- a bug between the network, station computer and software.

But late in the day, they went back to the drawing board and now say they don't know when the station will be back online.

``It's not as simple as we had hoped,'' college spokeswoman Doreen Clay said. ``We just have more work to do. But we'll get it done. We shall return the weather to the people.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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