What’s New – Columbia Weather Systems Updates and Interesting Applications

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Orion 420™ Weather Station Installed at Fish Barrier

Dec. 2011 – Engineering firm Smith-Root has installed an Orion 420 Weather Station at the Chicago 2A Fish Barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which feeds the Mississippi River into the Great Lakes. The weather station provides real time measurements of average wind speed, wind gusts, wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall, and solar radiation. Using a Weather MicroServer, data is automatically uploaded to the Weather Underground.

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Calendar photo for September 2012

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Oregon AMS Winter Weather Conference

Nov. 2011 – CWS participated in the Oregon AMS annual Winter Weather Forecast Conference held at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Conference photos and presentations are posted on the website: http://www.ametsoc.org/chapters/oregon Be sure to catch the video of George Taylor's La Niña forecast set to the tune of "My Girl."

New this year was an afternoon session of meteorology presentations:

Jeremiah Pyle of NOAA/NWS covered the dual polarization or polarimetric radar recently installed along the Washington coast at Langley Hill and Portland. The new technology compares the vertical and horizontal reflectivity to determine the uniformity of objects. This will allow for better snow level detection, improved radar rainfall estimates, and improved detection of hail cores in storm cells.

From the University of British Columbia, doctoral candidate Wolf Read, aka “Storm King”, presented his current research regarding Pacific Northwest diminishing windstorm frequency and the relation to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Lieutenant Colonel Thyra Bishop and Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Doggett, Oregon Air National Guard, outlined combat meteorology past and current roles in military actions. Examples include D-day forecast and current Iraq deployment equipment and the Iraqi weather service.

Finally, meterologist Chuck Wiese and physicist Gordon Fulks gave a brief overview of the lack of evidence for human-caused climate change. Gordon discussed political motives related to proponents of global warming. Chuck described a recent 10 year cooling in global temperatures that are not predicted in current climatic modeling.

WeatherMaster Software Main Screen

For more information click: WeatherMaster Software

Capricorn 2000EX™ replaces old Capricorn 2000™

Oct. 2011 – In a move toward increased cost-efficiency, the Capricorn 2000EX Weather Station will completely replace the older Capricorn 2000 model weather stations. Columbia Weather Systems will no longer be selling Capricorn 2000s.

"As higher-tech sensor technology has become more available, we have been phasing out our flagship wind-sensor design," said CWS president Nader Khoury. "We will continue to assist Capricorn 2000 customers with repairs and replacement parts, as well as technical support."

Capricorn 2000EX Weather Stations offer modular sensor components built around a central control module. The standard sensor package includes wind speed and direction with 360-degree resolution, barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity. Optional sensors include rain gauge, solar radiation, leaf wetness, visibility and up to three additional temperatures (ambient, soil and/or water temperature).

Capricorn 2000EX Weather Stations provide the reliability and affordability of proven mechanical wind sensor technology with the flexibility of sensor selection for application-specific requirements.

photo by Gabi Cohen

Capricorn 2000EX situated atop the Visitor Center at the Oregon Garden.

Orion 420 Weather Station™ Upgrade

August 2011 – CWS's proprietary monitoring devices -- the Weather Display Console, WeatherMaster™ Software, and the Weather MicroServer™ -- are now compatible with the Orion 420 Weather Station.

The Orion 420 Weather Station offers a complete weather station for industrial PLC interface. It features 4-20 mA current output from ultrasonic wind direction and speed sensors, impact rain sensor, plus humidity, temperature and barometric pressure. Weather data can be monitored and integrated with PLC software such as Wonderware®.

The Orion 420 is used in facility management for companies such as Intel, DuPont and Bechtel.

For more information click: Orion 420 Weather Station

How NOT to return a sensor for repair.

Mac WeatherSnoop Software for Capricorn 2000EX™

June 2011 – Mac software WeatherSnoop is now compatible with Capricorn 2000EX weather stations. Besides graphical real-time monitoring, WeatherSnoop offers database, spreadsheet, graphing and data sharing with web-based networks such as Weather Underground and Citizen Weather Observer - all with the look and feel Mac users expect.

"We are pleased to provide Mac weather enthusiasts with support for the Capricorn 2000EX weather station," said Boisy Pitre of Tee-Boy. "Columbia Weather Systems readily provided their support and expertise in adapting their station to WeatherSnoop, and we're happy to partner with them."

For more information click: WeatherSnoop