Borth Weather Station

Here in Wales and elsewhere in the UK we are all obsessed with the weather… Even a quick read through this weblog will prove this as there seems to be quite a few references to what the weather has been up to. Maybe its because we are quite exposed here and really feel the full force of the weather, but whatever the reason it is certainly the hot topic of the day almost everyday.

Setting up a weather stationOf course, I am probably more obsessed with the weather than most as my passions of windsurfing, kitesurfing and surfing depend heavily on what the wind and surf is up to, so I always have an eye on the weather. Many of the people who regularly visit my Forces-of-Nature coastal sports website are similarly obsessed with the weather, but are not so fortunate to live here where the action is. Because of this Forces-of-Nature will soon be adding a new ‘Live Weather Station’ to the list of online services it offers. As you can see from the photo I have been up a telegraph pole setting the weather station up. It will take me a while to get the website side of things up and running as I first need to source and set-up a PC dedicated to running the weather station which can sit in a corner somewhere crunching the data received from the sensors and uploading it to the internet.

I’m hoping to go live with the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station in the next 4-6 weeks. When it does go live the weather station pages will offer up to the minute live data on wind direction, wind speed, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall and various other weather parameters. In addition to the live weather data I’m also hoping to provide data on weather extremes (daily, monthly and yearly maximums and minimums), trends (over various timescales) and various graphs and charts based on the data collected by the weather station. Once established the weather station should be useful for people living in or visiting the Aberystwyth area or anywhere along the coast of Cardigan Bay.

I’ll keep you posted with the progress, and hopefully I won’t have to go up that telegraph pole again for a while!!

9 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author MartynJ says:

    How about a web cam such as the one at Rhosneigr Angelsey…
    http://www.camserv.co.uk/rhos/index.htm?
    If the weather is friendly any weekend soon I may check out your area, as I currently live in North Wales, and am learning to windsurf. Which brings me to my next point – where do people go to learn to windsurf? I have only ever met pre-beginners or advanced-intermediates, nothing in between! It is most frustrating!

  2. Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

    Hi Martyn,
    I have thought about a WebCam, but I’m doing one thing at a time!! The main problem for me is funding all this gear as the site it will go on is a non-profit making site.

    You’d do well to come down here for some windsurfing, Borth can be perfect. Have you checked out my other website http://www.forces-of-nature.co.uk which is dedicated to windsurfing (and other coastal sports) in Borth and beyond… It has a healthy, friendly community of windsurfers and lots of features that you may like to use.

    As far as places to learn go, then the beachguide on Forces-of-Nature may help you. Here you can sail on the seafront but for learners it can be a little too much with the waves. However there is also the estuary for nice safe flat water practise… If you are near Rhosneigr then the Inland Sea on Anglesey may be the place to head if you want to get away from the waves.

    Al.

  3. Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

    Uh oh….. I think I shall need to go up the pole again. It’s currently blowing a hoolie from the NNW but the anenometer seems to be in an area of swirling wind and is reading about 12 knots rather than 25….. I’m going to need a bigger pole!

    Al.

  4. Avatar forComment Author David @ ForumWales says:

    I’m looking forward to seeing the output of your live weather station. I’ll keep checking back.

    Good luck!

    David

  5. Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

    Cool… We certainly had some weather yesterday! 37 knots maximum gust and quite a bit of rain. The console in the house displays little messages now and then along with the actual data and at one point yesterday it said ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ and at a few points when it was windy it said ‘Hold onto your hat’!!

    A weather station with a sense of humour! I like it.

    It also has its own forecast feature, which I didn’t have particularly high expectations of as it will be difficult to formulate an accurate forecast from data at a single location. However, yesterday afternnon the ‘snow’ forecast icon came on and sure enough there is snow on the ground here this morning!

    Al.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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