Automatic Weather Stations
Mace Head Station (looking northward). Credit: Kilian Harford
What is an automatic weather station?
An automatic weather station (AWS) is a meteorological station at which observations are made and transmitted automatically. There are many different types of AWS available, and we would like as many of these as possible connected to the WOW-ie site.
Met Éireann already has 20 automatic weather stations recording minute-by-minute data in Ireland and we are installing another 80 around the country to grow the official Irish weather and climate observation network and get more real-time weather data. The automatic weather stations which Met Éireann staff install have a very high technical specification, and are maintained and calibrated regularly to ensure that the weather data recorded by them is as accurate as possible. We choose locations for weather stations that represent the weather for a large area around them, are protected from the influence of industry and are on an open site as far from woods or buildings as possible.
Malin Head – the view from the Weather Station Anemometer
Because of this, Met Éireann stations are often located in rural areas. Met Éireann and other national weather services are part of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), a specialised agency of the United Nations. The WMO gives guidance on how and where to install weather stations in their Guide to the Global Observing System. Because of this, national weather services record observations of temperature, wind, pressure, solar radiation (energy from the Sun) and other weather parameters in a similar way all around the globe. This makes it easier to compare weather data globally.
Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing
Citizen science is the practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge. Crowdsourcing is very similar and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet’.
Many people have a great interest in weather and have their own automatic weather stations to see what the temperature is or how much rain falls in their garden. In the past 20 years, automatic weather stations have become more affordable and user friendly. Basic automatic weather stations can be bought which measure outside air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure and display it on an electronic device indoors. Many amateur weather observers have sophisticated automatic weather stations by companies like Davis, Oregon Scientific, La Crosse and others. This list does not constitute an endorsement by Met Éireann. These AWSs measure air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure like the basic models, but often have rain-gauges to measure rainfall, anemometers for measuring wind speed and direction, ground temperature and solar radiation sensors and more. Since most people live in towns and cities, the amateur weather observers’ stations are, unsurprisingly, clustered in urban areas.
Figure 2 from Bell, S., Cornford, D., & Bastin, L. (2013). The state of automated amateur weather observations. Weather, 68(2), 36-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.1980. Copyright © 2013 Royal Meteorological Society
WOW-IE
WOW-IE
Met Éireann is about to launch the Irish version of WOW – Weather Observations Website called WOW-IE. It is the Weather Observations Website of Met Éireann and is part of the global WOW network of crowdsourced weather observations. It is available at https://wow.met.ie/ If you own a weather station we invite you to connect it to the WOW database and view the data online. You can view real-time temperature, pressure, wind values and more from privately-owned weather stations, Met Éireann’s stations and from National Meteorological Services around the world! WOW-IE is a Weather Education and Data Comparison tool. You can view the archive of past weather observations on the WOW-ie map, on a graph or table, the data is available to download. WOW-IE displays weather observations from various sources in real-time. Met Éireann does not correct or review WOW data, hence incorrect values or missing data may occur, even from official stations. Quality controlled data from Met Éireann’s official weather stations are available here.
WOW-IE is run in collaboration with the UK Met Office and national meteorological services in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia. Currently in Ireland there are about 15 private weather station owners uploading their weather observations to WOW-IE. Met Éireann uploads data from 20 of its official automatic weather stations and over 30 of its automatic climate stations. By sharing your weather station data you are helping to improve the Irish weather observing network and helping Met Éireann forecasters to get a better picture of weather around Ireland.
Voluntary Weather Observers
Met Éireann’s Director Eoin Moran, Brother James O’Hare
Amateur weather observers in Ireland contribute to the field of citizen science through their monitoring of Irish weather and building up our store of weather data. Met Éireann and other national weather services use the WOW platform to crowdsource weather data to improve meteorological knowledge of the weather. The science of meteorology has a strong background in citizen science. The earliest weather observations were often taken by amateur and voluntary observers. There are many voluntary observers around Ireland who have been taking rainfall measurements every morning for many decades. You can find this data here. Met Éireann is very grateful to our dedicated group of voluntary climatological observers throughout the country. Indeed some of our observers have given service which deserves special mention. One such is Brother James O’Hare of the Salesian Order and former principal of Warrenstown Horticultural College. This article describes the presentation in 2016 thanking him for his immense personal contribution to the national climate archive of Ireland.
This video highlights the vital role of the weather observers that help tell the story of Ireland’s climate since the 1800’s.