Columbia Weather Systems

Recently, an explosion triggered a large fire at a chemical plant in Shepherd, Texas, sending massive plumes of black smoke into the sky. Authorities said flammable liquids, diesel, turpentine, and other toxic chemicals were involved in the fire. Multiple agencies responded including The Woodlands HazMat unit with their Orion Weather Station connected to CERES plume modeling software. Roads were closed and power outages were reported. Local residents were issued a shelter-in-place order being advised to turn off their HVAC, some schools were evacuated, and busses re-routed in San Jacinto and Polk counties. Only one person was reported injured. The Woodlands HazMat vehicle is from Pierce through the Siddons-Martin Emergency Group who provided the above photo. See the following links for additional details: Pierce Manufacturing Vehicle Specs Siddons-Martin Emergency Group Website

Located on the Gulf Coast in the panhandle of Florida, Eglin Air Force Base is often subject to hot and humid weather conditions that can make it dangerous to work outside. Additionally, their radar operations can be subject to atmospheric interference. All these factors intersected when a new radar site was constructed. Wes Mason, Radar Engineer for Reliance Test & Technology* reports, “Eglin AFB built a radar site 300 miles away, in the lightning capitol of the United States. We needed a weather station to measure the local conditions to correct the atmospheric errors. However, this location is too far away for Eglin AFB to provide the weather conditions for personnel safety, so we upgraded to the Columbia Weather Systems Pulsar 800 sensor with the optional Black Globe sensor . The new weather station adds lightning and solar data, so we generate our own lightning and heat stress indications for when it is safe to work outdoors or not.” Although the site is remote, personnel ha...

  Zort Services Technical Advisor Craig McCann took over operations at an existing solar energy site that utilized Solar 1 Orion weather stations . He explains, “The customer already owned several of these weather stations. I purchased additional to create standardized implementation.” The weather data is used to meet ISO requirements for MET data. “I would recommend these products,” Craig adds. He lists some reasons: “High quality. In addition to providing an easy to work with interface, the MicroServer product allows for polling by multiple clients using various protocols. The webserver/webpage function makes setup and commissioning straightforward.” We love hearing how our equipment helps customers. Thanks for sharing, Craig! Learn more about weather stations for solar energy projects here .