Columbia Weather Systems

Weather data can serve as an important component of a water utility’s mission to serve the public. Several of these functions can be impacted by weather conditions. Water utilities manage public resources that offer recreation and education opportunities such as reservoirs and wetlands. Water utilities take the lead in promoting optimal water usage and conservation. Additionally, weather data can be a component of public communication during extreme weather events which may impact water service. Recreation/Education Many water districts incorporate reservoirs which may also be used for public recreation. Reservoirs incorporate obviously large bodies of water and often hilly terrain which lend themselves to creating a unique microclimate compared to population centers. Chances are good that visitors are traveling there from a different microclimate. Weather data can be used for reservoir management and made available to the public to determine whether weather conditions are cond...

Many facilities are located proximate to commercial and/or residential neighbors. Forward-thinking plant managers want to be good neighbors and take steps to reduce odor issues from the plant, whether chemical or sewage. “Odors from wastewater treatment plants cause neighbors to complain,” says Raquel Rimbach in a Pollution Equipment News article. “These complaints can escalate, gaining traction with public officials and even the media, negatively impacting the plant’s reputation.” 1 Factors such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction contribute to odor intensity and drift. Monitoring and documenting these parameters can help when addressing neighborhood concerns and planning for odor control and mitigation. For example, research shows a positive correlation of H2S concentrations with temperature as it facilitates the growth of microbes. An inverse correlation with precipitation can be owing to infiltration and inflow. Meteorological monitoring helps ...

Meteorological data can be a critical tool for water utility managers to make intelligent decisions to improve efficiencies, safety, and public information. With the rise of data-driven decision-making and inter-agency collaboration, weather monitoring is becoming increasingly important across government agencies. The Internet of Things movement is a big drive toward Smart Everything – Smart Phones, Smart Cities, Smart Governments. With the integration/interoperability of city-wide agency systems, “Smart Water” plays a significant role and weather monitoring is a part of it. Over the next few weeks we’ll highlight more specifics in five areas. The first is Operations. Whether dealing with water supply or water treatment, weather conditions impact operations. Operating procedures are created taking meteorological factors into consideration. Standard decisions can be automated for normal operations and planned/documented for special circumstances such as chemical release or se...

Throwback to last Thursday: Glenn Nishida from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) highlights the importance of reputation management. Bethany and Gary attended the PNW Defense Coalition event on Government Contracting last week. BPA is a long-time customer of CWS, beginning with our legacy Capricorn II Weather Station in 1991 and upgrading in 2003.

It’s Water Week 2018 -- the perfect time to kick off our next series “5 Reasons Smart Water Utilities Need a Weather Station.” With the rise of data-driven decision-making and inter-agency collaboration, weather monitoring is becoming increasingly important across government agencies. The Internet of Things movement is a big drive toward Smart Everything – Smart Phones, Smart Cities, Smart Governments. With the integration/interoperability of city-wide agency systems, “Smart Water” plays a significant role and weather monitoring is a part of it.  Meteorological data can be a critical tool for water utility managers to make intelligent decisions to improve efficiencies, safety, and public information. Over the next few weeks we’ll highlight more specifics in five areas. The first is Operations. Watch for it next Tuesday.

#TBT: Promoting the Capricorn II Digital Weather Station at a local airshow was a family affair in August 1983. The weather data was provided to pilots for flight operations. Even then sales were international, so a local event was a rare opportunity. Columbia Weather Systems was spun off from Hinds Instruments in 1998. In our 20th year of independent operation, we're looking back a bit to our roots. We've been in the weather monitoring business quite a while.