Citizen Weather Observer Program
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Join CWOP or CWOP-snow Search CWOP or shortform |
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Join CWOP or CWOP-snow Search CWOP or shortform |
The Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) is a public-private partnership with three goals: 1) to collect weather data contributed by citizens; 2) to make these data available for weather services and homeland security; and 3) to provide feedback to the data contributors so they have the tools to check and improve their data quality. In fact, the web address, wxqa.com, stands for weather quality assurance.
The number of North American CWOP stations sending data over the past several days is normally more than 7000 stations sending 50,000 to 75,000 observations every hour. The number of world-wide citizen weather stations sending data to CWOP is shown increasing over the past decade.
CWOP members send their weather data by internet alone or internet-wireless combination to the findU server and then every five minutes, the data are sent from the findU server to the NOAA MADIS server. The data undergo quality checking and then are distributed to users. There are over 800 different organizations using CWOP mesonet data. Here is a partial list:
- NWS Weather Forecast Offices
- National Center for Environmental Prediction
- National Ocean Service
- National Transportation Safety Board
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- Department of Homeland Security
- Denver Urban Drainage and Flood Control District
- Colorado Avalanche Information Center
- Kennedy Space Center
- NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
- University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- MIT Lincoln Laboratories
- University of Utah
- Penn State University
- Mississippi State University
- University of Alaska
- University of North Dakota
- Hampton University
- Texas A&M University
- University of Hawaii
- Florida State University
- Weather Underground
