From the Davis Pro 2 weather station, data is transmitted every few seconds to a server owned by Davis Instruments, which is then transmitted on to Citizen Weather Observers Program (CWOP) servers and distributed to weather networks across the internet.
Wunderground.com has a great map that can be easily zoomed in/out and moved around the country.
MesoWest is another great website that allows anyone to access current and past weather data through maps and lists.
In addition to FAA/NWS weather stations located at airports, personal weather stations help fill in the gaps to create a comprehensive monitoring network. Also transmitting data to that network are USGS and US Coast Guard stations and buoys, oil drilling platforms in the ocean, local school weather stations, and state DOT sensors located along major highways.
So, to that large network, I submit my data from a west-central portion of the City of Ashland. The box on the top-right of this page lists some location and station information.
This map, above, shows Ashland's DW6451 weather station in relation to northern Wisconsin and Lake Superior.
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| Vantage Pro 2 Integrated Sensor Suite |
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| 4" Raingauge (0.01" increments) |
And finally, every morning I manually measure rainfall or snowfall in the last 24 hours and send that data directly to the local office of the National Weather Service. I also collect a core sample of any new snow and melt it, allowing a liquid equivalent to be measured, equal to how much rain would have fallen if the temperature was above freezing. Daily snow depth is also measured to observe snow pack changes throughout the winter.
My station was given the name AWXW3 by the National Weather Service. Station IDs are unique to every location and are assigned when the station begins recording data.
I submit the same data each morning to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow network (CoCoRaHS), a group of volunteers across the country. My CoCoRaHS identification is WI-AS-4.
If any severe weather occurs in Ashland, or a weather event produces damage, I submit a report to the National Weather Service as a trained Severe Weather Spotter. This allows severe weather to be verified, or alerts the meteorologists that the current storms have increased to a severe level and are producing damage.
Wisconsin's main tornado season is June and July, but tornadoes have occurred in Wisconsin during all twelve months. Wisconsin averages 21 tornadoes per year with an average of 1 death per year, so it's always best to be prepared for severe weather.
