Weather or Not

"See you’ve been in the sun and I’ve been in the rain” – So Far Away, Dire Straits
 
Cycling in the wind stinks. Tailwinds can trick you into thinking you're really fit. Headwinds are a thief of effort. As a result, I like knowing how much wind I'll encounter for a cycling trail I frequent before driving the 10+ miles to get to the trailhead. It’s no fun to load everything into the car and drive there only to discover the conditions aren't great. Weather Underground delivers “hyper-local” weather information and forecasts that enable me to determine conditions before leaving home. They do this by gathering data from a large network of weather stations. This is a great example of the "Internet Of Things" - a term I find amazingly boring given the excitement of the solutions.

The Weather Underground website and smartphone app deliver content to users based on data collected from three sources:

• ~2,000 Airport Weather Stations operated by the Federal Aviation Administration. 
• ~26,000 Surface Weather Stations operated by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 
• ~250,000 Personal Weather Stations operated by individuals and businesses. 
  ​A Personal Weather Station (PWS) is a low cost ($100-$200) device that can easily be installed at a home or business. They are readily available from a variety of sources including Amazon. A PWS collects temperature, humidity, rainfall, and other information.

How did the company establish this huge network of Personal Weather Stations? They recognized an opportunity to leverage the proliferation of low-cost weather stations and their ability to connect to the Internet. Weather Underground also made it easy for weather station owners to register and connect their units with the Weather Underground service.  Now all data from someone's Personal Weather Station is available to anyone accessing Weather Underground. This data is also used to provide forecasts for very precise locations. (e.g. What is the weather forecast for my neighborhood?)
 
Creating a Personal Weather Station is easy.  Weather Underground even provides a Buying Guide that identifies a variety of compatible options. Many stations not listed in their Buying Guide will work as well. A quick search on Amazon.com provides a host of very reasonably priced Personal Weather Stations that will connect to Weather Underground. It’s clear that weather station companies see “Weather Underground Compatible” as an important selling feature as it is frequently listed as a product capability.

Weather Underground users can monitor a specific station very easily because all registered stations are placed on a map. That is what I do before leaving on a bike ride. You can simply click on any station you wish to monitor.

This is what I see when I click on a weather station

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