Citizens Weather Observing Program. We Want Your Data!

Own A Weather Station? Send Your Data Directly To The National Weather Service!

Do you own a personal home weather station and have a dedicated connection to the Internet? If you do, the National Weather Service (NWS) would love to see your data! The NWS can receive your automated weather data directly into our display systems, which can help to improve weather forecast models and allow the NWS and local television meteorologists to become aware of neighborhood "micro-climates" specific to your local area. We can receive your data through the MADIS data stream, which is then funneled to meteorologists everywhere. If your weather station and accompanying computer software is capable of sending data over the Internet (check the instruction manuals), read on for some more information on how you can send your data out to the world! You may already be sending your data to other, private networks, mentioned in your instruction manual.

Check out the screen capture below - all those dots represent backyard weather stations that are sending data to the MADIS servers!

Image showing the CWOP program coverage in NY and PA.

The Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) is a private-public partnership group which facilitates the transfer of personal weather station data from backyards to meteorologists and other data users. The program has three main goals:

1) to collect weather data contributed by citizens;

2) to make these data available for weather services and homeland security; and

3) to provide feedback to the data contributors so that they have the tools to check and improve their data quality.

There are around 9,000 registered CWOP members world wide, including a large number in New York and Pennsylvania. CWOP members automatically send their weather data to the (MADIS) servers where data are checked for quality and accuracy. Every 15 minutes, the entire data set is made available for use by NWS meteorologists almost immediately. There are also over 500 different government and commercial organizations using local mesonet data today!

If you are interested in improving weather forecasts, and want your data to play a role in the overall NWS watch/warning/forecast process, then navigate to the registration link and, in just a few simple steps, you will become a member. To set up your station, follow the CWOP activation instructions and any manuals which came with your weather equipment. Once finished, you'll be sending your data straight on through to the meteorological community!

To give you some idea of how valuable this data can be, check out this news link from CWOP which details some of the ways CWOP data has been used in extreme weather situations, or in other unique ways.

If you are interested in getting your data online, or have questions about the overall process, please send an email to the folks at NWS CWOP support!