Choosing a school weather station

There are several choices in creating a school weather station. One path is to do everything by hand, using fixed thermometers, wet bulb hygrometer, barometer, and anemometer, housed in a standard vented box. Some of these measurements are a challenge for the elementary setting, however, and options are available which use remote data collecting to allow the difficult observations to be made electronically. Rain and snow data still need to be collected directly, and cloud type/cover can be an excellent daily data collection which is easy for grades 3-5.

Here are some electronic options:

Davis Weather Systems (www.davisnet.com/weather/index.asp)- The latest system, the VantagePro2 can be configured as a wireless source for weather data. UV and solar radiation are included. The WeatherLink connection allows the data to be viewd and manipulated on your computer. Cost is around $1200 for the complete system.

AWS ‘WeatherBug’(www.weather.weatherbug.com/weather-education/default.asp) - This commercial/school partnership has the added feature of a connection to the local TV weather broadcasting system. Cost for participating in the program is based on how many features are chosen. Average cost is about $5000 per school, which usually includes installation and curriculum materials.

Columbia Weather (www.columbiaweather.com/WeatherStations.html) - The Orion system is an out of the box weather station which is a bit fancier than the Davis system. Cost is about $2300 not including installation.

Note: All weather stations must be properly grounded. Any ‘cabled’ stations need grounding and appropriate dedicated power supplies which may add extra cost to your project. Because of the cost of these stations, they are good candidates for PTO grant funding or local science grant funding.