Personal weather station guides
Practical guides to personal weather station setup, sensor metadata, published data, webcams, directories, browser tools and historical station pages.
- The Compact Station-Info Card on a Cumulus HostA Cumulus /info page is a compact station card: ID, location, software, and units. It is not a full siting-and-metadata configuration essay.
- The Mobile Site Root: Responsive HTML After WMLThe Cumulus /m root is a responsive HTML mobile site: successor to WML decks, distinct from WAP endpoints and from a dedicated /m/forecast tab.
- A Webcam Hub for a Cumulus Site: Index, Interval, PrivacyA Cumulus webcam hub indexes cameras, states capture interval, and sets privacy rules. It is not a pipeline, overlay, or named-camera display page.
- Historical Download Counters as Usage MetadataHistorical click.php?id= download counters recorded usage metadata. They are not a live tracker, and restoring old click scripts is a security problem.
- A Shared Current-Conditions Include and Its Data ContractSWN was a networked current-conditions include shared across partner sites. The data contract is station ID, observation time, and units—not a live Mesa table.
- Restyling a Conditions Include Without Changing the Observation Fields/SWN_new/ was a parallel HTML/CSS refresh of the shared conditions include. Layout can change; the observation field set should not.
- Sample Banners as Labeled Station ExamplesOn the main station site, sample banners were labeled examples of station identity, units, and time—not a Cumulus GD generator or a skin gallery.
- Station Configuration as Scientific MetadataStation configuration as scientific metadata: siting, sensor suite, logger, and published-data access. Why those records matter when interpreting observations.
- Labeling Experimental Weather Pages So They Are Not Treated as QC ObservationsExperimental weather pages—beta parsers and new widgets—must be labeled so visitors do not treat them as quality-controlled observations.
- A Single Weather Image as a Citable ObservationCite one weather photograph with capture time, camera identity, and caption. A clockless webcam JPEG is a picture, not an observation record.
- Recovering a Legacy Weather-Photo Archive Without Restoring Old LoginsRecover a Coppermine-era weather-photo archive by exporting files and metadata. Do not restore the old login or offer a fake password-reset form.
- Weather-Photo Galleries as Observation Logs, Not Social AlbumsOrganize a Coppermine-era sky archive as an observation log: capture time, viewing direction, and weather labels on each still, not a social album.
- Text-Only Station Bulletins and Complete Observation RecordsHow a low-bandwidth station bulletin encodes temperature, wind, rain, and pressure with units and a timestamp, illustrated by a dated 2005 Mesa snapshot.
- Mars Phoenix Lander Weather Reports and Backyard StationsNASA's 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander MET compared with a backyard weather station: pressure, dust, and temperature range. Historical, not live Mars weather.
- A Mesomap Widget: Neighboring Stations, Comparable Units and TimeA mesomap widget plots neighboring stations on one map with shared units and a shared time window. It is not a live console embed or a webcam wall.
- HTML5 Sky Sliders Must Play Stills in Time OrderPublic HTML5 sky sliders must advance stills in capture-time order. Autoplay that shuffles frames is a broken sequence, not a time-lapse product.
- PDA Observation Views: Completeness on a Tiny ScreenA PDA weather view is a tiny-screen observation, not a Cumulus /m root. Completeness still requires a timestamp, units, and station identity.
- What It Means for a Personal Weather Station to PublishPublishing a PWS means emitting observations to named destinations (website, CWOP/MADIS, maps, banners), each with its own ID and provenance.
- The Root Alias for a Shared Conditions Module/swn-page.php was the embeddable root alias for the networked conditions include. Three URLs existed so partners could include one module without three networks.
- Grouping a Personal Weather Station SectionHow a personal weather site groups configuration, station facts, scientific links, FAQ, and published-data notes as a section, not a live dashboard.
- Website Configuration for a Station TemplateWebsite configuration for a personal weather station: display units, refresh cadence, and template tags, not hardware siting or sensor metadata.
- A Visitor-Facing Station Information SheetA public station fact sheet: location, elevation, and sensor list in ordinary language. Distinct from siting metadata and from a compact Cumulus info card.
- Curating Scientific Links on a Station PageHow to curate outbound scientific links on a personal weather page: NWS, NCEI, and WMO first, not unlabeled blogs or decorative imagery sites.
- A Station Page That Lists Publication Targets and Feeds/weather-published.php was the station roster of publication targets and feeds—network names, IDs, and banner snippets—not the concept of publishing itself.
- A Scientific FAQ for a Personal Weather StationA sourced station FAQ: display units, siting, derived indices, and why a backyard reading differs from the airport. Not folklore and not an NWS warning desk.
- A Weather Resource Directory by CategoryA classified hub of weather-resource categories: warnings, climate archives, observing practice, satellite and models, networks, and software docs.
- Maintaining a Weather Directory Against Link RotKeep a weather link directory usable: check cadence, primary versus dead hosts, redirects, parked domains, and retiring URLs that no longer resolve to the publisher.
- This Station Webcam as an Observing InstrumentTreat this station's webcam as an instrument: capture interval, field of view, and timestamp. It is not a regional directory or a Cumulus hub.
- A Regional Weather-Webcam Directory: Owner, Location, Refresh, PrivacyA regional webcam directory must label owner, location, refresh interval, and privacy. It is not this station's camera and not a live control page.
- A Browser-Tool Hub for Weather-Station Operators/webtools.php was a hub of browser validators and converters for station operators—not a software download dump, and not the PHP scripts index.