Weather stations

How the climate tools pick a weather station: by name, from your site on a map, from a project's location, or from Site GIS.

Wind Rose, Rainfall, Thermal and Sun Path all read one weather station's record. This page covers how to pick that station, in any of the four tools.

What a station is #

Each station is a US weather station, most of them at airports, with a typical-year (TMYx) record built from many years of measurements. A typical year is a composite of ordinary months, not one real year and not the extremes.

The station isn't your site. Wind, rain and temperature at the site can differ, especially with distance, elevation, water, terrain, trees and neighboring buildings. Pick the closest station that's like your site, and read the numbers as a planning guide. Check design values with your engineer and local records.

Find a station by name #

On the start screen, type in the station search box under Find a station by name: a city, an airport or part of a station's name. Each result shows the station's name, its WMO number and its coordinates. Click one to load it.

If nothing matches, try the nearest city or airport name.

Map it from your site #

Under Or map it from your site:

Type a city, a county or a street address and click Find. Or click the map to drop a site pin.
The closest stations appear on the map with dashed rings at 10, 25 and 50 miles, and as a list of buttons with their distances. The first is marked closest.
Click a marker or a button to load that station.

Address search sends only what you type to OpenStreetMap's geocoder, when you click Find. The map's tiles also come from OpenStreetMap.

Start from a project or a site #

You don't have to search when the location is already known:

+ New on a project page starts Wind Rose, Rainfall or Thermal with the project's approximate location. The closest stations are already on the map. See Start a new wind study.
The project page's Approximate location has buttons for all four tools (Wind rose near here ↗, Rainfall ↗, Thermal ↗, Sun ↗). Each opens its tool at the project's location.
In Site GIS, Open in Sun, Open in Wind and Open in Rain open those tools at the site.

If one of these opens a tool that already has a different station loaded, the tool shows the station picker with the stations nearest the new location. Pick one, or click Cancel — keep to stay with the station you had.

Demo stations #

Demos, beside the start screen, has three stations with very different climates (Miami, Seattle and Fairbanks). They load in one click and work signed out.

Change the station #

Click ⇄ Change station in the toolbar.
Pick a new station from the picker.

The scheme keeps its old station until you pick a new one, so anyone else on the project never sees it empty. To back out, click Cancel — keep and the station's name.

The scheme's name follows the station #

When you pick a station, the scheme takes the station's name, as long as it's still "Untitled" or still named after the previous station. A name you typed yourself stays.

How far the station is from the site #

When you mapped from a site (or came from a project or Site GIS), Wind Rose, Rainfall and Thermal show a line above the study with the site, the station and the distance between them. Click it to see both on a map. These three tools don't save the site, only the station.

Sun Path saves the exact site with the scheme, because it computes the sun for that point. See Site location.

When a station has no data #

Not every station recorded everything. If a station is missing what a tool needs, the tool says so (for example No hourly wind data recorded for this station). Pick a nearby airport station instead.

If a station's record won't load, click Pick another station. The first visit to a station takes a few seconds.

Who can load station data #

Signed in with tool access: every station.
A guest on someone else's project: that project's climate schemes and their stations.
Signed out: the three demo stations.
On a view-only link: that link's own station only.