Didsbury Alberta Unoffical Weather Station

• Replaced CR123 battery with Lithium version in Anemometer unit and main sensor unit
• Gave wind cups and vane a wash.
• Zip tied wire to mount.  Plastic zip tie was broken

• Clean main unit. Spiders in it blocking rain.
• A weird black dots on plastic. Tried to wash off, but won’t come off.  Air pollution?

After a long wait for the replacement power supply, it finally arrived today and got the sensor back online.

Due to a power supply recall, the outdoor air quality sensor will be offline until a replacement arrives.

Replacement anemometer cups arrived today. Since I had to order new parts, I took advantage and ordered a new 24-Hour Fan for the temperature sensor and batteries and the new Aerocone rain collector with anti bird sitting spikes. Got everything installed today. Some pictures of the upgrades.

New anemometer cups installed and spinning.

Old rain collector

New Aerocone rain collector

New 24-hour fan and batteries.  The bearings on the old one was really worn out.  The fan hasn’t worked properly for the last year and a bit.  This should hopefully give me better temperature readings when there isn’t any wind and when the sun is beating down on the unit.

Also made some coding updates to the main front page.  Added some new features and updates.

Happy weather watching!

Today’s storm caused damage to the anemometer.  The system recorded 116km/hr winds with hail. New part is on order.

The new PurpleAir air quality sensor has been live since December.  The sensor has been working very well so far.

check it out here:

Click on the number circle on the map of Didsbury to bring up the data from my sensor. Ignore the legend table on the left side.

The air quality has been very good for the most part but have seen some spikes.  So far the poor air quality days have been due to wood stove smoke or local farm burning cut brushes.  Seen a few days when the southeast winds are blowing that the air quality becomes poor.  Not sure what pollutant is causing this spike.

If heading outside to exercise, it is worth while to check the air quality and then plan according.

Air quality is something we offen take for granted in Canada but our world is becoming more and more polluted. To help monitor air quality I’m added a air quality monitor to my weather station. I live in a valley on the prairies which often has air settling in and getting locked in as winds blow over and trap the air. So I’m curious what the air quality is like. What here for more details. Check out the crowd sourced project at https://www.purpleair.com
Talking about air quality, indoor air quality is also something to be concerned about. Radeon gases trapped in houses is a something that needs more attention. At my place in Didsbury I’ve seen numbers as high of 385Bq/m3 in my living area, basement would be even higher. World Health Organization recommends that levels should be max 100Bq/m3. Canada Health Organization max is 200Bq/m3. Air quality is something we need to look at more to improve the health of our communities.