Columbia Weather Systems

Check out the Tech Talk section of Treatment Plant Operator Magazine’s June issue, highlighting the role of weather monitoring in Smart Water for Smart Cities. The article illuminates how met data from on-site weather stations can be used to support operations and serve the public. Here’s a link to the magazine – article is on page 26 (digital page 28 if you’re searching online.) You might recognize the author!

Can you Imagine A Day Without Water? Tomorrow is a day to reflect about how much water we use -- not just in drinking -- but how much water it takes to produce so many of the foods we eat and products we use.  One affirmative action is to thank the water professionals who help provide that water to us. Celebrating  WaterProfessionalsWeek  (is it just in California?) we want to give a shout out to our local Hillsboro partner  Clean Water Services  for winning third pla ce in the Intelligent Water Systems Challenge last week at  WEFTEC2018 . The competition challenged students and professionals to use innovation and data to help solve “real-world problems” facing water and wastewater utilities. Eileen O’Neill, executive director for the Water Environment Federation (WEF), says, “Our hope is that the Intelligent Water Challenge will demonstrate the value of intelligent water systems to utilities and help foster the adoption of smart water technologies...

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...

CWS president Nader Khoury gave a presentation on weather monitoring to the local chapter of the American Water Works Association hosted at the North Clackamas County Water Commission. 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 can be a part of it: • Monitoring for drought/flooding • Stormwater management • Data points and more Weather stations can be a tool to provide information for analysis, to make data available to other agencies, and to the public. Show and tell with the Weather MicroServer.