How do Weather Stations Observe Weather?

The National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration operate hundreds of automated weather reporting stations across the United States. These automated stations record temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction, precipitation, visibility, and lightning. In addition, there are thousands more private weather stations across the United States measuring some or all of these variables. Typically every airport has an automated weather station to give real-time weather information to pilots.

Instruments on Automated Weather Stations

There are several different instruments as shown in the image above that are measuring many different variables. Wind is measured at a height of ten meters above the ground to avoid the influence of surface friction. This wind is measured at the top of the pole in the center of the above image with a sonic anemometer which uses sound waves to measure how fast and in what direction the wind is blowing. The weather station measures precipitation using a heated tipping bucket. This tipping bucket collects precipitation as it falls and will tip over every time it measures a certain amount (typically 1/100 of an inch). The reason the tipping bucket is heated is so that when precipitation is frozen such as snow, it will melt and the tipping bucket will still tip over with the correct amount of liquid precipitation. These are just some of the instruments that are used in automated weather instruments.