How Does a Personal Weather Station Work!

A few readers have asked me offline how one of my many avocations in retirement, weather monitoring, works.  I’m sure there are lots of ways. 

Below is a screen capture of the station I maintain and as it appears on a website.  Some information, e.g. soil moisture is just for my use and doesn’t appear here.  But the rest uploads every five minutes via the Internet along with 8,000 others in North America and 10 or so in various parts of Durham to the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP.)   

The date goes through a quality check and then to the NOAA server (National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration.)

From there it is accessed by 500 different users including the National Weather Service and the others on this partial list.:

NWS Weather Forecast Offices

National Center for Environmental Prediction

National Ocean Service

National Transportation Safety Board

National Center for Atmospheric Research

Department of Homeland Security

Denver Urban Drainage and Flood Control District

Colorado Avalanche Information Center

Kennedy Space Center

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

MIT Lincoln Laboratories

University of Utah

Penn State University

Mississippi State University

University of Alaska

University of North Dakota

Hampton University

Texas A&M University

University of Hawaii

Florida State University

Weather Underground

It is interesting, fun and useful. I can also use info from my station via www.weatherunderground.com to map storms and cloud cover or temperature and precipitation when I go for a ride like I did today to Asheboro and back to take in the air museum and the great Harley museum there.