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Personal Weather Stations Helping With Weather Forecasting
Weather Storm writes "Weather information from thousands of personal weather stations are being used for weather forecasting by several private and government agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Citizens Weather Observation Program (CWOP) was created by a few amateur radio operators experimenting with transmitting weather data with packet radios, but it has expanded to include Internet-only weather stations as well. As of September 2007, nearly 5,000 stations worldwide reported weather data regularly to CWOP's FindU database. The weather data is forwarded every 15 minutes to NOAA's Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS), checked for temporary and spatial consistency, than utilized by computer forecast models and internal forecast verification programs. In a Febuary 2007 report (PDF) DHS listed CWOP as a national assets to the 'BioWatch' Network, stating that data from personal weather stations could be useful in weather forecasts for hazardous releases. In 2007, the FindU server received 422,262,687 weather reports which is a 29.5% increase over 2006." The personal weather stations certainly come in stylish shapes.
more like personal faggots!
LOLOLOLOL!!!!!one11!!!!
You even got the capital letters right there Homer - you just didn't follow through to the logical (and correct) acronym: DHS - Doh!
Yes, but, does it run linux?
Are you required to consistently install your weather station? It would seem like you could get some inconsistent data if some people mount them in the sun while others in the shade etc. Or are they just depending on the volume of reports to create a median result?
I don't need a personal radio station to tell me that a thunderhead will be following me around all day. I already know that.
expandfairuse.org
While temporary consistency is good, temporal consistency lasts longer and tastes better too.
Put your station next to a high rpm fan, and a water sprinkler system, and you'll be predicting high level hurricanes 24/7 :)
This submission was worthy simply for attributing the acronym DOH to the Dept of Homeland Security.
Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.
It is now technically feasible to reproduce without the aid of males (or, for that matter, females) and to produce only females. We must begin immediately to do so. Retaining the male has not even the dubious purpose of reproduction. The male is a biological accident: the Y (male) gene is an incomplete X (female) gene, that is, it has an incomplete set of chromosomes. In other words, the male is an incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage. To be male is to be deficient, emotionally limited; maleness is a deficiency disease and males are emotional cripples.
The male is completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, or love, friendship, affection of tenderness. He is a completely isolated unit, incapable of rapport with anyone. His responses are entirely visceral, not cerebral; his intelligence is a mere tool in the services of his drives and needs; he is incapable of mental passion, mental interaction; he can't relate to anything other than his own physical sensations. He is a half-dead, unresponsive lump, incapable of giving or receiving pleasure or happiness; consequently, he is at best an utter bore, an inoffensive blob, since only those capable of absorption in others can be charming. He is trapped in a twilight zone halfway between humans and apes, and is far worse off than the apes because, unlike the apes, he is capable of a large array of negative feelings -- hate, jealousy, contempt, disgust, guilt, shame, doubt -- and moreover, he is aware of what he is and what he isn't.
Although completely physical, the male is unfit even for stud service. Even assuming mechanical proficiency, which few men have, he is, first of all, incapable of zestfully, lustfully, tearing off a piece, but instead is eaten up with guilt, shame, fear and insecurity, feelings rooted in male nature, which the most enlightened training can only minimize; second, the physical feeling he attains is next to nothing; and third, he is not empathizing with his partner, but is obsessed with how he's doing, turning in an A performance, doing a good plumbing job. To call a man an animal is to flatter him; he's a machine, a walking dildo. It's often said that men use women. Use them for what? Surely not pleasure.
Eaten up with guilt, shame, fears and insecurities and obtaining, if he's lucky, a barely perceptible physical feeling, the male is, nonetheless, obsessed with screwing; he'll swim through a river of snot, wade nostril-deep through a mile of vomit, if he thinks there'll be a friendly pussy awaiting him. He'll screw a woman he despises, any snaggle-toothed hag, and furthermore, pay for the opportunity. Why? Relieving physical tension isn't the answer, as masturbation suffices for that. It's not ego satisfaction; that doesn't explain screwing corpses and babies.
Completely egocentric, unable to relate, empathize or identify, and filled with a vast, pervasive, diffuse sexuality, the male is pyschically passive. He hates his passivity, so he projects it onto women, defines the make as active, then sets out to prove that he is (`prove that he is a Man'). His main means of attempting to prove it is screwing (Big Man with a Big Dick tearing off a Big Piece). Since he's attempting to prove an error, he must `prove' it again and again. Screwing, then, is a desperate compulsive, attempt to prove he's not passive, not a woman; but he is passive and does want to be a woman.
Being an incomplete female, the male spends his life attempting to complete himself, to become female. He attempts to do this by constantly seeking out, fraternizing with and trying to live through an fuse with the female, and by claiming as his own all female characteristics --
NOAA is the single remaining government agency that I still trust implicitly. DHS is nearly the polar opposite. I'm not sure what to make of a collaboration between them, but I'm encouraged by the fact that they're taking input from regular citizens. No doubt NOAA is behind that initiative.
There has been tremendous pressure from commercial weather interests to devalue the NOAA/NWS, to decrease its funding, to cripple its information distribution, in favor of making people pay to get the sort of weather data that NOAA has been distributing for free ever since they were chartered. I'm happy to see that new programs with public participation and cooperation are still being created. WX data is crucial for everyone, let's keep it open and free and public.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Minus all the dumb ass comment's, I've ran a cheaper weather station, and placement is key. (reflective sun, etc) But my friend has a nice Davis weather station (wired varmit) that works just great. They also have Wireless versions available. (disclaimer .. no ties to the company, etc..) As far as software goes, Linux versions are available, although running Windows software via a VM works.
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
I'm thinking a PDA add-on* that collects basic information like temperature, humidity and whatever else one can without being cumbersome and unreliable. Combine this with piconets and microclimate research will be a bit easier.
*Note that with miniturization a weather station can literally be anywere. It's the getting data from one spot to another that's a bit challenging.
WTF
NIGGER
I wonder if I could panic meteorologists by purchasing a few thousand of these and putting them in an oven..
It would be great if I could apply to a program/agency and get a standardized weather reporting kit in order to participate for free. Basically just have them distribute grant money in order to set up even more stations.
"Grandma, wait, don't fart near that.....nevermind"
Table-ized A.I.
This is an interesting application of distributed and networked technology (I'm not sure what else to call it - would this be classified as distributed computing?) - using technology to extract information from an extremely large number of processing nodes in a way that is impractical on a smaller scale. It reminds me in a way of projects like Seti@Home/Folding@Home. That is, using the combined technological resources from a large number of people to do some pretty cool things that just weren't possible a few years ago.
It will be interesting to see what other sorts of projects in this vein take shape in the near future.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
If you've never seen it, Weather Underground uses Google Maps and overlays all the personal weather stations (PWS)in an area view. They even have a published iGoogle gadget.
God: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
I am not from the US but I first heard of Jim Hansen in the 80's, IMHO he is one of the great minds of the 20th century and has shown the required balls to publicly 'speak truth to power' on several occasions to both sides of US politics.
A public servant who really does serve the public, what will they think of next?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Jim Hansen is a "good guy" in many respects, and knows his disciplines thoroughly.
Unfortunately he lost the thread rather dramatically as a scientist during the last decade as a result of the global warming debate. Instead of sticking with the facts and methods in which he is very expert, he succumbed to advocacy and personal interpretation and replaced careful science with unmitigated support of the current status quo in global warming, relying on his status in the field, with harsh criticism of anyone who raised any questions.
It was bad for climatology and bad for science as a whole, as it brushed the enormous uncertainties under the carpet and made lay people think that this science has reached a predictive state, which is laughably distant from the truth.
Hopefully the climate debate will disappear in a few years and Jim will go back to being an objective and careful scientist.
One thing which is not mentioned here is that PWS owners also create websites to display their data. These sites have become increasingly sophisticated over the years. Some sites now have live Ajax updates, live radar, live weather cams, live weather radio and live lightning data.
For those who like to tinker with things which give real-world results, and help your community by providing weather data, being a PWS and weather website owner is quite rewarding.
http://www.wxqa.com/webpages.html
By the way, the hardest part of being a PWS owner is proper mounting of the equipment. This is where CWOP is really invaluable to PWS owners, providing a very comprehensive manual and data quality checker.
Jim has a better track record than you. From the wiki link...
"In 1981 Hansen and a team of scientists at Goddard had reached the conclusion that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would lead to global warming sooner than previously predicted. While other climatoligists had already predicted that a trend would be apparent by 2020, Hansen predicted, in a paper published in Science, that the change was already occurring and that there would record high temperatures as early as 1990. He also predicted that it would be difficult to convince politicians and the public to react. "
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Wasn't NOAA evil? I thought that was RIAA's submarine division. ;-)
checked for temporary and spatial consistency
I think he meant "temporal".
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
goto wunderground.com
enter your zip code
There is a box on the page called "Current Conditions." Scroll to the bottom of that box and click on the link called "Google Map of Personal Weather Stations." Here is an example link:
http://www.wunderground.com/stationmaps/gmap.asp?zip=94608&magic=1&wmo=99999
Each of the station icons, which indicate current conditions, can be clicked on to access much more detailed current conditions and often extensive history as well. I'm lucky that a nearby neighbor has one, and I get accurate data from his station all of the time. It's really the ultimate site for weather geeks.
A few years ago I was managing a hazardous material removal in a high profile public location. All of the work was done late at night to maintain access for the public to the building. Each night the crew had to build a 2 story containment of poly sheeting. Of course the site was near the shore and subject to high winds which could blow down even the best containment. Since there was a personal weather station very close by I was able to monitor the windspeed from the comfort of my home. On two nights the wind got over 20mph, and I shut them down for the night to prevent the containment from being blown down.
-- QED
I agree that NOAA & the NWS are the best government agency in our government and that all citizens should make sure that our governments' representatives know that weather data and forecast must remain free and open to the public. Private business and broadcasters that want to make a fee based services is messing with the only government agency that does their job right, make sure to stand up for your rights and let your government representatives know where you stand on this issue.
Also I do not work for NOAA or the NWS; but I do have a weather station an current weather conditions are viewable at http://www.sicertinc.org/KC9JMW-WX/ it been running since 2005 and sending data to the projects and the NWS. I'm a amateur radio operator KC9JMW is my call and I'm part of the Citizens Weather Observation Program (CWOP) movement and Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS), but you do not have to be an amateur radio operator to have a weather station and provided data to these projects.
Additional there is a volunteer project the CoCoRaHS which is a grassroots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow) in their local communities. I was one of the first volunteers in the state of Illinois and have been providing data since December of 2006, to learn more go to:
http://www.cocorahs.org/
One final note in regard to the other agency of our government, I agree with the general sentiment of the other writers here that the DHS and EMA do not live up to their charters of protecting and working with and for the citizens of this great country. I have been working for over 4 years to bring CERT Teams; Community Emergency Response Teams to my rural area of Illinois, at every step along the way I have met resistance from the very government agency and local EMA personnel that state they support such citizen activism, my web site is http://www.sicertinc.org/
To all keep the faith!
Richard, KC9JMW
"CoCoRaHS (the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network) is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications."
Yep. here's my weather station: Page: http://weather.spc-tech.com/ Images: http://www.radiocity.si/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3352#3352 Enjoy.
I was trying to determine the weather so I could decide if I wanted to drive 60 miles north. The sky was very cloudy and dark. It was cold and it looked like snow would fall any minute. The Weather Channel and Weather.com both said it was clear skies all the way. I checked the forcasts on Accuweather and weather.com. Same thing -- nothing but clear skies all day. There was just one problem. You couldn't see a clear sky anywhere.
I really suggest that before these services post data like this that they look out the window first.
Computers, data, NEXRAD and all are fine but, they often are blind too. I would guess that along the Rocky Mountains that the weather service is correct about 65% of the time. The other 35% they are so far off that it is amazing. We've had an inch of rain when it is reported clear skies and good weather. We've had snow on clear days. We've had clear days when the weather service reports cloudy...
My dad was piloting a plane out of Kansas City when he was told to take a heading directly into a huge thunderhead. He told the center that there was a huge thunderhead in front of him on that heading. The center told him there wasn't -- nothing on the radar. My dad asked the controller to...Look Out The Window. He was given directions around the storm. It's no wonder that weather is a part of learning to fly.
Best advice - look out the window.
Banjo - The more I know about Windoze, the more I love *nix
I received a personal weather station as a gift. It's not the kind that broadcasts to the Internet, but it's still nice to be able to check the outside temperature when inside. My only complaint is that it runs through batteries. We're down to 7.2F tonight right now in Virginia and the cold weather is hard on batteries. Lithium batteries seem to last longer, but they are also more expensive. I recommend a classic non-electric thermometer as backup. In my area, you can be a weather watcher for the local TV station with minimal equipment: just a reliable thermometer and rain gauge.