Weather Station

Information about Weather Station

A technician examines a weather station's anemometer.

Weather station at Mildura Airport, Victoria, Australia.

A weather station is a facility with instruments and equipment to make observations of atmospheric conditions in order to provide information to make weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate.

Typical weather stations have the following instruments:

Thermometer for measuring temperature
Barometer for measuring barometric pressure
Hygrometer for measuring humidity
Anemometer for measuring wind speed
Wind vane for measuring wind direction
Rain gauge for measuring precipitation

Except for those instruments requiring direct exposure to the elements (anemometer, rain gauge), the instruments should be sheltered in a vented box, usually a Stevenson screen, to keep direct sunlight off the thermometer and wind off the hygrometer. The instrumentation may be specialized to allow for periodic recording otherwise significant manual labour is required for record keeping. Automatic transmission of data, in a format such as METAR, is also desirable as many weather station's data is required for weather forecasting.

Daily observation times

Historically readings were taken by weather observers who were typically not paid and performed the duty as part of their permanent jobs (e.g., postmaster). These weather readings were taken between 7 and 9 a.m. local time daily as unpaid observers were unwilling to take readings from midnight to midnight. Since the advent of automatic weather stations, these time intervals occasionally remain as a part of tradition when reporting daily to outside organizations.

External links

International Weather Watchers Observer Handbook (PDF 768KB 45 pages)
Association of American Weather Observers
Citizen Weather Observer Program
CWOP Weather Station Siting, Performance, and Data Quality Guide (PDF 800KB 88 pages)
Weather Stations
WeatherBug Network Observers
Initial Guidance to Obtain Representative Meteorological Observations at Urban Sites, by Tim R. Oke (PDF 423KB 51 pages)
NWS Cooperative Observer Program
NWS Observing Handbook No. 2: Cooperative Station Observations (PDF 1.4MB 94 pages)

References

Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.
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Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location.

Human beings have attempted to predict the weather since time immemorial.
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weather is the set of all extant phenomena in a given atmosphere at a given time. The term usually refers to the activity of these phenomena over short periods (hours or days), as opposed to the term climate, which refers to the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of
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Climate is the average and variations of weather over long periods of time. Climate zones can be defined using parameters such as temperature and rainfall.
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contradict the article Timeline of temperature and pressure measurement technology. Please see discussion on the linked talk page.

A thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient, using a variety of different principles.
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Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that is hotter generally has the greater temperature. Temperature is one of the principal parameters of thermodynamics.
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A barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. It can measure the pressure exerted by the atmosphere by using water, air, or mercury. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather.
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Atmospheric pressure is the pressure at any point in the Earth's atmosphere. In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point.
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Hygrometers are instruments used for measuring humidity. A simple form of a hygrometer is specifically known as a "psychrometer" and consists of two thermometers, one of which includes a dry bulb and the other of which includes a bulb that is kept wet to measure
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Humidity is the amount of water vapor in a sample of air compared to the maximum amount of water vapor the air can hold at any specific temperature. Absolute humidity, relative humidity and specific humidity are different ways to express the water content in a parcel of air.
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anemometer is a device for measuring wind speed, and is one instrument used in a weather station. The term is derived from the Greek word, anemos, meaning wind.
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Wind speed is a term applied when talking about the movement of air from one place to the next.

Please note, "Wind speed" should not be confused with the Speed of Wind. Analogous to the Speed of Sound or the Speed of Light, the Speed of Wind, at 3.
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weather vane, also called a wind vane, is a movable device attached to an elevated object such as a roof for showing the direction of the wind. Very often these are in the shape of cockerels and are called weather cocks.
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Wind direction is the direction from which the wind is blowing. It is usually reported in cardinal directions or in azimuth degrees.

There are a variety of instruments used to measure wind direction, such as the windsock and wind vane.
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rain gauge (also known as an udometer or a pluviometer) is a type of instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation (as opposed to solid precipitation that is measured by a snow gauge) over a set period of
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precipitation (also known as hydrometeor) is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the earth's surface. It occurs when the atmosphere (being a large gaseous solution) becomes saturated with water vapour and the water condenses and
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Stevenson screen or Instrument shelter is a meteorological screen to shield instruments against precipitation and direct heat radiation from outside sources, while still allowing air to circulate freely around them. It forms part of a standard weather station.
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contradict the article Timeline of temperature and pressure measurement technology. Please see discussion on the linked talk page.

A thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient, using a variety of different principles.
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For other things named postmaster, see Postmaster (disambiguation).

Postmaster (or Postmistress) refers to the head of an individual post office.
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automatic weather station (AWS) is an automated version of the traditional weather station, either to save human labour or to enable measurements from remote areas. The system may report in near real time via the Argos System and the Global Telecommunications System, or save the
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