School Weather Stations: Spreading Knowledge and Data Worldwide

The construction of school weather stations is gradually becoming popular around the world, especially playing an important role in meteorological science popularization education. According to statistics, many countries and regions around the world have established School weather stations at present, aiming to improve students' scientific literacy and meteorological knowledge.

In China, by 2018, more than 1,000 School weather stations had been established across the country, and more than 80% of the schools insisted on carrying out meteorological science popularization activities. These weather stations are not only used to monitor meteorological data but also provide a practical learning platform for students and enhance their awareness of meteorological disaster prevention and reduction.

A public school located in Kotapalli in southern India has a weather station. The school is situated among farms and is the only school in southern Telangana state (and perhaps in the whole country) that has a weather station on campus. Students here record meteorological data such as rainfall, humidity, wind speed, and air temperature. This is part of a project led by the International Crop Research Institute, aiming to customize the agriculture of the village according to the available water. The weather station was initially visited by scientists monthly to obtain data, and later students from the school were involved in data monitoring.

The manufacturer Fengtu has launched many School weather station products. For example, FT-XQ4 is highly integrated and has low power consumption. It is powered by mains electricity and transmits data through GPRS or wired connection. It has a 2-meter * 1-meter LED screen. It can measure various meteorological elements such as ambient temperature (-40 to 60 °C), humidity, atmospheric pressure, and illumination. It has a large data storage capacity. The cloud platform has strong functions and supports multi-account login, data display, SMS alarm, etc.

FT-XQ1 can be connected to the monitoring platform. It is powered by mains electricity and transmits data through GPRS or wired connection. It is equipped with a 1-meter * 0.5-meter LED screen. It can monitor temperature (-40 to +80 °C), humidity, wind speed, rainfall, etc., with relatively high accuracy.