Definition

A weather station is a facility or instrument package that measures atmospheric conditions at a specific location. At minimum, a weather station records temperature and precipitation. More complete stations measure barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, UV index, and soil moisture. For a comprehensive overview of weather station types and their history, see the Weather station article on Wikipedia.

Station Types

Professional Stations

Operated by national meteorological services (such as Météo-France, NOAA, or the UK Met Office), professional stations follow strict WMO siting and calibration standards. Instruments are maintained on a regular schedule, placed at standardised heights, and positioned away from obstructions. Data from these stations feeds into forecast models and climate records.

Personal and Hobby Stations

Personal weather stations (PWS) are consumer or semi-professional instruments installed at homes, schools, or small businesses. Common brands include Davis Instruments (Vantage series), La Crosse Technology (WS-2300, WS-3600), Oregon Scientific (WMR series), and Ecowitt/Fine Offset. These stations connect to a base console that displays readings and can export data via USB, serial, or network connections.

While personal stations rarely meet professional siting standards — rooftop installations are common, and nearby buildings create microclimate effects — they still provide valuable hyperlocal data when properly calibrated and maintained.

Core Instruments

• Thermometer — measures air temperature, typically using a thermistor in a radiation shield
• Hygrometer — measures relative humidity, usually capacitive; prone to drift over time
• Barometer — measures atmospheric pressure; requires sea-level correction based on station altitude
• Anemometer — measures wind speed, either cup-type (rotational) or ultrasonic
• Wind vane — measures wind direction; requires careful alignment to true north
• Rain gauge — measures precipitation accumulation, typically tipping-bucket; calibration degrades with debris

Connecting to Publishing Software

Personal weather stations connect to publishing software like GraphWeather through several pathways:

• USB/Serial — direct cable connection from the console to a computer running GraphWeather. The software polls the console at configured intervals.
• Network — some stations (Davis WeatherLink IP, Ecowitt gateways) push data to a local network endpoint or cloud service. Software can poll these endpoints.
• File-based — the station software writes data to a local file (CSV, XML), and GraphWeather reads the file for processing and publishing.

Regardless of the connection method, the publishing workflow follows the same pattern: read data → process and validate → apply to templates → generate graphs → upload to web server. See Publishing Fundamentals for the complete workflow.