About This Station

Lochaber Weather was setup in May 2016 and is located near Inchree, a village between Corran Ferry and Onich, close to Loch Linnhe, on the West Coast of Scotland.
The station was originally set up on the Isle of Lewis and ran as Hebrides Weather from 2007 until December 2015.

Lochaber Weather Station
Leaf & Soil Station

Leaf Wetness SensorThe weather station in use is the Davis Vantage Pro2 which is wireless and measures the wind speed & direction, the days rain from midnight to midnight, outside air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure at sea level. It also calculates the wind chill and dew point. Extra equipment has been added to the VP2 and it now also records Solar and UV radiation, leaf wetness (for a faster indication of when it's raining), grass & soil temperature and soil moisture. To stop the temperature and humidity sensors from being effected by the Sun on warm days there is also a daytime solar powered fan to keep a constant airflow over the sensors.

All the sensors are solar powered and have a battery backup. To stop birds from using the rain gauge as a toilet a row of stainless steel pin are arranged around the top of the rain bucket to stop birds from landing on the edge. The same has been done to the leaf wetness sensor. The soil temperature & moisture sensors have been placed at a depth of 20cm.

There is a Boltek StormTracker Lightning detector connected to the computer using Nexstorm software that registers any lightning strikes within a 750 mile radius. The data for the lightning detector is also made available to various websites that produce triangulated lightning data to better identify the exact location of thunderstorms around Europe.

The forecasts are created using WXSim software which is tailored to this location and collects data from various sources to produce an accurate 5-day forecast.

The weather data is uploaded using a software called Weather Display which puts all of the data together, creates the graphs, tables and reports then uploads the data to the site. The program was written & designed by New Zealander, Brian Hamilton, who continues to update and add new features all the time.

There are a number of other pieces of equipment associated with the website including a webcam looking at the Ardgour Hills, a Comar AIS-2-USB AIS receiver to see what shipping is in Loch Linnhe and a Kinetic SBS-1 virtual radar for picking up aircraft in the area.

All the equipment is fed into a dedicated desktop PC which runs 24/7 and is fitted with an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) which will supply enough power keep the PC and router running for about 40 minutes if the mains power is lost.

Davis VP2 Anemometer
Solar & UV Sensors

About This Website

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