WATERLOO - The University of Waterloo weather station will celebrate its 10th anniversary next week and hold its annual contest to predict the arrival of spring-like weather.

The station, which will be a decade old on Feb. 27, issues this public challenge: Guess the date and time when the recorded temperature at the station will first exceed 20 C.

"Ten years ago when we first created the UW weather station and its website we had no idea how popular it would become," says Frank Seglenieks, co-ordinator of the weather station. "I would never have believed that the day would come when we would have over 5,000 people looking at the website every day. It always feels good when people tell me that they're using data from the station or use it as their homepage."

For details on how to enter the contest, visit link The deadline to enter is Thursday, Feb. 28 at 3 p.m. Last year, almost 1,000 people from the campus and local communities participated in the contest.

Prizes for the winners are sponsored by UWShop, a campus retail store. The person who is closest to the actual time will receive a UW umbrella and a $30 gift card. There will also be prizes for the next two closest guesses. As part of the 10th anniversary celebration, prizes will be awarded to three random people just for entering the contest.

Since the weather station began operating in 1998, the earliest day that the temperature hit 20 degrees was March 8, 2000, while the latest it has occurred was April 19, 2006.

Located on UW's north campus, the station is a class A weather station with equipment provided by Environment Canada. It is used for both educational and research purposes.

Types of data available from the station include current temperature, wind chill, precipitation, relative humidity/dew point, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure and incoming radiation. Gardeners, landscapers, engineering consultants and schoolchildren are among those using its current readings and archives. The station's popular website averages more than 5,000 hits a day.

The station receives support from UW's civil and environmental engineering department and geography department, as well as from the climate research branch of Environment Canada, Campbell Scientific Canada and the Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund.