Columbia Weather Systems

Our technical support specialist, Vincent, recently visited Holy Cross Catholic School in Portland to commission their new Orion™ Weather Station. He connected the Weather MicroServer to the school’s network, set up a cloud weather server account, and confirmed the data was coming in, all in under an hour.  Holy Cross has hosted a CWS weather station since 1999. Phil Volker, long-time Portland area broadcast meteorologist and founder of Extended Range Weather Forecasting Company, noticed a gap of met data in North Portland’s St. Johns area, so he worked with Holy Cross to put a station there. The school has used the weather station for educational purposes and for parents to be informed of conditions at the school.  Phil’s work with CWS goes back to 1978, when he helped the Hinds family develop the Capricorn system. Through ERF, Phil and CWS president Nader Khoury helped deploy nearly 150 stations around the West, many in places with no weather information available. Personall...

On National First Responders Day we want to thank the firefighters, hazmat teams, EMTs, police officers, and dispatchers who show up when people need them most, often in difficult and unpredictable conditions.  That includes the teams who responded to the recent fire at a seafood processing plant in Newport. This post from the Oregon State Fire Marshal shows a CWS vehicle weather station deployed there.  The official Oregon.gov Newsroom reported, “The Oregon State Fire Marshal has mobilized several resources to help first responders, including a hazmat team, to a large fire at Pacific Seafood in Newport. The fire was first reported on Sunday morning. State Hazmat Team 05, Linn-Benton, responded because of the presence of anhydrous ammonia, used in refrigeration, at the facility. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 ?...

  Over the past few months, hackers have attacked municipal water systems across the country, targeting the programmable logic controllers (PLCs), that run pumps and valves controlling water flow.  Weather monitoring equipment often sits on these same industrial networks, connected to the PLCs and SCADA systems these advisories are warning about.  While we are not aware of any attacks involving our equipment, CWS president Nader Khoury provides some tips on how to keep your weather station secure, so that it does not become a system vulnerability. Read more here: https://columbiaweather.com/resources/protecting-against-cyberattacks/

Nader and Martha representing at Met Tech … can you guess where?

We discovered on LinkedIn that Stern Power Solar Systems recently kicked off an interesting project including a Magellan MX501™ weather station from Columbia Weather Systems. Uwe Schaible, Stern’s co-founder and CTO, told us a bit more about it: The project We are doing a one-year trial with the DFO (Canadian Department of Fisheries and Ocean) where they are testing the different configurations of our product line. The intent is to supply continuous power for remote monitoring and surveillance in unserviced locations, which is of particular interest to the DFO. The installation The purpose of this installation is to demonstrate the ability to continuously power monitoring equipment (in this case a weather station) and transmit the data to the cloud using a satellite ISP. This system is currently fully operational. Why we chose Columbia Weather Systems We picked the CWS product because of the form factor, power draw, and the company’s North American origin. Read more here: https://colum...

Did you know??  We can customize your professional weather station with Additional Sensors via our Weather MicroServer . For example, we offer two visibility sensor options for applications including transportation, broadcasting, solar energy, industrial automation, mining, and research, with customers such as BNSF, Johnson Controls, and CBS Television . Two visibility sensor options to fit any power setup Seamless integration through the Weather MicroServer Reliable readings through fog, smoke, and snow Option 1: Visibility Sensor (Part #82620-1DC) covers a 16 km (10 miles) range, using the same 42-degree forward scatter angle trusted by the NWS and FAA, with an ice-resistant “look-down” design built to reduce window contamination and clogging from blowing snow. Option 2: For solar-powered stations, we offer a Low Power Visibility Sensor (Part #82620-10) w ith a range up to 75 km (about 46 miles), +/-10% accuracy up to 10 km , and reliable performance from -25 ° C to...

  Weather data you can trust. Columbia Weather Systems and Gill Instruments have built a  partnership around this simple idea with our Magellan MX™ line of weather stations.   With GPS- and compass-equipped weather stations utilizing the sensor suite from Gill, the Magellan MX auto-aligns wind measurements the moment it's deployed, no manual calibration required. That speed matters most in mobile and portable applications, where public safety is often on the line.  Gill's Business Development Manager, Paul Berberian, put it this way: “One of the things I've always admired about Columbia Weather Systems is that they begin every conversation with the customer's application. They take the time to understand the operational challenge before selecting the right technology to solve it.”  Great to see this partnership highlighted by the team at Gill. Read the full article to learn more: https://gillinstruments.com/weather-intelligence-columbia/   Image cou...

  As Fall approaches, it brings shifting winds, dropping temperatures, and changing daylight. Wind speed and direction have always been important measurements in our weather stations, helping our customers stay a step ahead as the seasons change.  As the leaves turn and the air cools, we are grateful for another season spent helping people understand the weather around them!  The picture below is "The" Tree at the Portland Japanese Garden, a maple in the Strolling Pond Garden that's become famous among photographers over the years, even earning a National Geographic award and a spot in a Smithsonian exhibition. Keep an eye on the Portland Japanese Garden 's Fall Colors Tracker for updates on when the maples hit peak color! (Photo taken by Nader Khoury, CWS President) #Fall #ColumbiaWeather #WeatherMonitoring