NWS installs new real-time weather station in Denver

DENVER. Denver’s official climate data has been stored at Denver International Airport (DIA) for 26 years.
A common complaint is that the DIA does not accurately describe weather conditions for most Denver residents. The bulk of the city’s population lives at least 10 miles southwest of the airport. 20 miles closer to downtown.
Now, an upgrade to the weather station in Denver’s Central Park will bring real-time weather data closer to communities. Previously, measurements at this location were only available the next day, making daily weather comparisons difficult.
The new weather station may become meteorologists’ go-to tool for describing Denver’s daily weather conditions, but it won’t replace DIA as the official climate station.
These two stations are truly wonderful examples of weather and climate. Daily weather conditions in cities can be very different from airports, but in terms of climate the two stations are very similar.
In fact, the average temperatures in both places are exactly the same. Central Park averages slightly more precipitation at just over an inch, while the difference in snowfall over this time period is only two-tenths of an inch.
There is little left of the old Stapleton Airport in Denver. The old control tower was converted into a beer garden and still stands today, as does long-term weather data dating back to 1948.
This weather record is the official climate record for Denver from 1948 to 1995, when the record was transferred to the DIA.
Although climate data was transferred to the DIA, the actual weather station remained located in Central Park, and personal records remained there even after the airport was dismantled. But the data cannot be obtained in real time.
The National Weather Service is now installing a new station that will send weather data from Central Park at least every 10 minutes. If the technician can set up the connection correctly, the data will be easily accessible.
It will send data on temperature, dew point, humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure and precipitation.
The new station will be installed at Denver’s Urban Farm, a community farm and educational center that offers urban youth a unique opportunity to learn about agriculture first-hand without leaving the city.
The station, located in the middle of agricultural land on one of the farms, is expected to be operational by the end of October. Anyone can access this data digitally.
The only weather the new station in Central Park can’t measure is snow. Although automatic snow sensors are becoming more reliable thanks to the latest technology, official weather counting still requires people to measure it manually.
The NWS says snowfall amounts will no longer be measured in Central Park, which will unfortunately break the record that has stood at that location since 1948.
From 1948 to 1999, NWS staff or airport staff measured snowfall at Stapleton Airport four times a day. From 2000 to 2022, contractors measured snowfall once a day. The National Weather Service hires these people to launch weather balloons.
Well, the problem now is that the National Weather Service plans to equip its weather balloons with an automatic launch system, which means that contractors are no longer needed, and now there will be no one to measure the snow.