Airport surface observations
70 instruments/minutes
temp, wind, gust, visibility, precip, pressure
The backbone. Individual sensors fail and the station does not, so every reading is published with the age of the observation beside it.
-F
-
Now, today, and the week
Weather instrument stations by state
What is measuring in Wisconsin
2,179 instruments still reporting in Wisconsin, across 7 networks, each one with the kind of measurement it makes and how often it makes it. Open a place below to see which of them stand near it.
measured now172 instruments
Road weather towers
53 instruments/minutes
temp, pavement temp, wind, visibility, precip
Air temperature, pavement temperature, wind and visibility, placed where the road closes. The right instrument for a blowing-snow answer and almost nobody uses it well.
Data-collection platforms
46 instruments/hourly
temp, wind, gust, humidity, pressure
Shore stations, fire weather stations and river gauges on one identifier. Most of them measure the river and are never offered here; the ones that are published air temperature and wind. A platform that was quiet when the catalogue was built is still listed, because it remains registered with its network. It is the only shoreline wind this service carries.
Soil climate stations
2 instruments/hourly
temp, humidity, soil temp, soil moisture
Air and soil together: temperature and moisture measured in the ground at depth, hourly, mostly on farms and research land.
Climate reference stations
1 instrument/hourly
temp, humidity, wind, solar, precip
The national reference: triple sensors for temperature and precipitation, sited well away from buildings and paving, and kept to one standard across the country. The yardstick the other instruments are measured against.
measured daily2,007 instruments
Volunteer precipitation and snow observers
1,770 instruments/once a day
precip, snowfall, snow depth
The same measurement a cooperative observer makes, from many more gardens. Wisconsin publishes 1,770 of these against 237 cooperative observers, so on most days it is the densest picture of what is on the ground that exists.
Cooperative observers
237 instruments/once a day
snowfall, snow depth, precip, high, low
A person, a board and a ruler, in the morning. It cannot say what is falling right now and it is the best answer to how much is on the ground.
What the snow tracker reads here
Every instrument in this state
-in
Snow on the ground
Every place in Wisconsin
19 places, each with its own forecast and its own instruments.