TCNJ Weather Station Now OnLine

If you are wondering whether you'll need an umbrella today, the physics department might be able to answer that question. This fall, the department purchased a Davis Vantage Pro 2+ weather station and installed it on the roof of the Science Complex. Since its installation, the station has been continuously recording a full range of meteorological data, which is being used by students in the School of Science. The data is also feeding into National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) computers, said Assistant Professor of Physics Nate Magee, who oversaw installation of the station. 

TCNJ’s weather station measures temperature, dewpoint, windspeed and direction, rainfall, UV radiation, and total solar irradiance. “The sensors operate and transmit continuously and are powered by a solar photovoltaic panel,” Magee explained. “The data signal is received in my office…and uploaded to my Web site every 10 minutes…. [It] is also uploaded to NOAA every 15 minutes.”

Magee said the station’s data has played a critical role in his Physics 171 (Meteorology) class’s labs and lectures. It also assisted with a forecasting contest his students held. The students used the station’s data to forecast all aspects of the weather for one week. Their forecasts were then pitted against the predictions of the National Weather Service (NWS), Accuweather, and climatological expectations. Almost all students outperformed climatological expectation, Magee said, and several even bested the professional forecasters from Accuweather and NWS.

Magee said that astronomy students are also using the station data to choose optimal observing times in the school’s observatory. Discussions to incorporate the station’s measurements in several other physics courses are under way, and “faculty from biology and computer science have also indicated plans to use the data in their courses,” Magee added.

The data from TCNJ’s station is also incorporated in NOAA’s numerical forecasting models, and plays an important role during severe weather and other emergencies. “Our observations are…one new piece of a larger puzzle that supercomputers assemble every day as input to weather forecast models,” Magee said. “The greater number of observations included as input to these models, the more accurate the weather forecasts become.”

But you don’t have to be a physicist or a meteorologist to take advantage of the station’s data. “The weather station can be of general utility to any TCNJ student curious about climate change research or just trying to decide what to wear today,” Magee said.

You can view the data from TCNJ’s weather station on Magee’s Web page at www.tcnj.edu/~magee/davis/Current_Vantage_Pro_Plus.htm.

The Web site also includes data about the sunrise, sunset, and moon phases in addition to the current and archived weather data recorded on campus. It contains links to many other weather information resources as well.

The station’s official designation is CW8967, Ewing, NJ. This call number can be used to view TCNJ’s data within the network of observations monitored by the NOAA Forecast System Laboratory (www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mesonet/).