Saturday, October 11, 2008

What Is This? (Weather Station)



This, obviously, appears to be a weather station. It's location is on Hwy 111 north of Hwy 293 near Rickman, Tennessee. If any of you have an idea what it is exactly, I would sure like to know. Either leave a message under the 'Comments' section or e-mail at: admin@cookevilleweatherguy.com

Click on the picture for a larger, more zoomed-in view.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's definitely a weather station. It's a station put out by the NWS as part of their METAR network (aka, it's a METAR station). I've seen some of these abroad myself. These neat little devices are what comprise some of the NWS METAR network. The rest are installed at local airports.

Hope this helps!

Nathan Parker

WeatherBug Backyard Sr. Anchor
Hot Springs, AR

Anonymous said...

These look similar to the RWIS (Roadside Weather Information System) stations, however I don't see anything to detect visibility. This is not listed here: http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/weather/asos/?state=TN

Nathan, what documentation do you have for this roadside Metar station. I'd like to know more!
-Eddie

Michael Detwiler said...

Nathan & Eddie:

Thanks for your information. It sounds as if we're getting a little closer. There is another one of these on top of Monterey Mountain on I-40 EAST of Cookeville near the Putnam & Cumberland County line. I'll get up there and snap a picture of it soon.

Should either of you get more information, please pass it along.

~Michael D.
Cookeville Weather Guy

Michael Detwiler said...

Received an e-mail today from a gentleman who is a sales rep for a company that provides/sells equipment for the RWIS (Roadside Weather Information System) across the US. It happens this equipment shown in my post is not from his company (as they don't sell our state)...I asked him if the information is located on the web. Hopefully, I'll hear back from him very soon.

~Michael D.
Cookeville Weather Guy

Meteorologist Erik Proseus said...

It's definitely not an ASOS. They are at airports and are much larger and more complex. RWIS would be a good guess, but it sounds like that is not right either. Perhaps a station associated with an air quality monitoring station in the county? That would be my next guess. Check with county engineers or health dept.

AMS

AMS
Member-American Meteorological Society