About LakevilleWeather.com

Lakevilleweather.com has been providing live, accurate, local weather information since 2006 to the city of Lakeville, Minnesota, the southern Twin Cities Metro Area, and the world. Our presence on the internet as a private weather station started when personal weather stations (PWS) were just taking hold worldwide. We were the first non-commercial weather station of its kind in Lakeville, with the only other weather reporting station being the Automated Surface Observation System at Airlake Airport (KLVN). We were also the first in the south metro with a live-updating internet presence. Our data has been submitted to the Citizens Weather Observation Program (CWOP) since 2006. Although PWS's have grown in number, espeically around our area, we remain the only one with a dedicated internet presence and self-hosted website.

Investing in professional grade equipment and building a website presence with real-time, accurate, and localized weather reporting has continued to set lakevilleweather.com apart. We have been sourced as the "local authority" for weather by several public and private entities, including Lakeville Public Schools, local churches, Lakeville sporting and outdoor recreation organizations, and more.

In 2015, lakevilleweather.com was named a "Weather Ready Nation" Ambassador by the National Weather Service. As a WRN Ambassador, lakevilleweather.com has entered a new chapter of service, and will focus more efforts on weather education and preparedness.

 

Station Details

Our station employs a Davis Instruments sensor package and consolidated data receiving and parsing unit. It is sited in the southwestern corner of Lakeville, 4 miles southwest of downtown Lakeville. We also gather weather forecast, warning, advisory, and other information from the National Weather Service and re-distribute it on our website. All weather data (temperature, wind, precipitation, pressure, humidity, and more) that is updated real-time comes from our station directly. The quality of the data is statistically checked against trends monitored from Airlake (KLVN) and MN-DOT roadside weather monitoring equipment on Interstate I-35. Website coding is customized and based on templates and scripts made available to the weather enthusiast community via several sources.

Lakevilleweather.com is a non-profit endeavor. Funding for our service is provided by Flight Line Books, LLC, as well as private donations.

About Lakeville

Lakeville, Minnesota is located in the southernmost portion of the Twin Cities metropolitan area surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul. It approximately 23 miles directly south of downtown Minneapolis.

Rich in historical lore, today's Lakeville had its origins back in 1853. That's when Captain William B. Dodd, who came from the east to serve the military forts in the Minnesota Territory, designed and directed the construction of a road that would serve as a practical land route connecting the military forts in St. Paul to the southern forts. The road, which was named for Captain Dodd after he was killed in the Sioux uprising in 1862, bisects present-day Lakeville.

J.J. Brackett, who owned a St. Paul lumber mill and transported mail, supplies and travelers along this route, soon chose Lakeville as an ideal site for a town because it was roughly halfway between St. Paul and St. Peter. In 1855 he platted 250 acres and named it Lakeville because it bordered the nearby Prairie Lake. By 1858 Lakeville contained a general store, two hotels, a boarding house, a blacksmith shop, a saloon and a shoemaker shop.

Griffin Phelps is believed to have been Lakeville's first real settler. He came to Minnesota in 1853 and went to work for J. J. Brackett. Mr. Phelps is believed to have "squatted" on land along Lake Marion before settlement was actually even legal. He is known to have sowed the first rye in the area in 1853, and was appointed postmaster in 1854 by President Pierce. The post office was the first in this part of the county, so people from Rosemount, Empire, Eureka and Poplar Grove came for their mail. Phelps served in the Civil War in Co. F, Hatch Battalion, Minnesota Cavalry, from 1864 to 1866, when he returned to Lakeville.

Lakeville Township, which encompassed the rural area around the tiny town of Lakeville, was officially formed as a governing unit in 1858. A variety of ethnic groups settled in the Lakeville area in the early years, including immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, England and the Scandinavian countries.

When the Hastings and Dakota Railroad was built near the tiny village of Lakeville in 1869, railroad officials tried to buy land for a depot from a Scotsman who refused to sell. The railroad then bought 20 acres a half mile east, put up a platform and named this area Fairfield. It wasn't long before existing businesses moved from the original town site to Fairfield, and new businesses were established at the new town site. For nine years, business owners and residents tried to get Fairfield's name changed to Lakeville. In 1878, they decided they wanted a government separate from the township and sought incorporation as the Village of Lakeville. The short-lived name of Fairfield is carried on in the city's Fairfield Business Campus and the Fairfield Apartments that provide housing for senior citizens.

In 1910, Colonel Marion Savage and several partners had a dream that resulted in building an amusement park, along with a railroad line that connected the park with the Twin Cities. They located their park on the east shore of the then-Prairie Lake, renaming it Lake Marion after Colonel Savage. Antlers Amusement Park became one of the most famous amusement parks in the upper Midwest. It contained a lavish dance pavilion with a gleaming oak dance floor; a large bathing beach that featured a dock, diving tower and high sliding chute; a boat dock that offered sailboats, rowboats and canoes; a children's playground with a miniature operating train for children; tennis courts, an athletic field and baseball diamond with a grandstand for spectators; and an aerial swing. A nine-hole golf course was located nearby. The rail line was named the Dan Patch Railroad Line after the famous racehorse owned by Colonel Savage. Luxury excursion cars with real leather seats, stained glass upper windows and richly carved and inlaid wood brought thousands of visitors to the park each summer. On weekends in the summer of 1912, these trains reportedly made 19 scheduled runs each day. The area was already popular with wealthy families from southern states who came to escape summer heat and humidity. These families and other visitors stayed in cabins located around the lake or at Weichselbaum's Resort, which was famous for its fried chicken, apple pie and homemade ice cream. The amusement park declined in popularity in the 1920s and 1930s due to a combination of factors - the advent of the automobile, the Great Depression and several dry years that saw Lake Marion drop to its lowest level ever.

The original village and fire hall, built in 1910, still stands downtown. Now home to small businesses and apartments, the building features a tower that once held a bell that summoned townspeople to fight fires. The original bell now hangs in a new tower on the Fire Department headquarters building. Agriculture was the major industry in Lakeville for many years, with several grain mills that handled crops grown by area farmers, and a creamery that processed milk into diary products.

Airlake Industrial Park, which is now home to more than 100 businesses and employs 4,000 people, opened in 1967. At the same time, most of Lakeville Township merged with the Village of Lakeville to become the 38-square-mile City of Lakeville. Just prior to the merger, Lakeville Township included 2,100 residents, while the village was home to just under 1,000. By 1970, Lakeville's population had grown to 7,557. The population doubled from 1970 to 1980, and doubled again from 1980 to 1992. The current population is more than 43,000. Lakeville is expected to become the largest city in Dakota County by the year 2020.

- Adapted from the Lakeville Historical Society