Weather

We use a Davis Vantage Pro Plus 2 weather station to record basic weather parameters, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation, and solar radiaiton every minute. A Davis Vantage Pro was installed at TAO from October 2001 to February 2013. The Davis Vantage Pro Plus 2 was installed in February 2013. At present, the station records data every minute but recording intervals have changed over the history of the station. The different recording intervals are listed below:

  1. 10 min record: October 24 2001 - May 24 2002
  2. 30 min record: May 24 2002 - May 16 2003
  3. 15 min record: May 16 2003 - June 25 2003
  4. 1 min record: June 25 2003 - June 24 2004
  5. 30 min record: June 24 2004 - January 30 2013
  6. 1 min record: January 30 2013 - present

Our station records in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), rather than local Toronto Time. During daylight savings time (~March to October) Toronto is UTC -4 hours. Standard time is UTC/GMT -5 hours.

The weather forecast on the Burton Tower Weather Station home page also predicts weather for the next 12 hours using an algorithm based on the pressure and pressure trend, wind speed, month, and hemisphere of the station.

The weather station data has also been recorded online since October 22, 2013 and updates every 10 minutes. The data can be found on our TAO Weather Station website..

  Davis Vantage Pro 2+  
 
Parameter Resolution Range Accuracy
Barometric Pressure 0.1 mm Hg 410 to 820 mm Hg ± 0.8 mm Hg
Dewpoint 1°C -76° to +54°C ± 1.5°C
Evapotranspiration 0.1 mm daily to 832.1 mm; monthly and yearly to 1999.9 mm ± 5%
Heat Index 1°C -40° to +74°C ± 1.5°C
Inside Relative Humidity 1% 1 to 100% ± 3% (0 - 90% RH), ± 4% (90 - 100% RH)
Outside Relative Humidity 1% 1 to 100% ± 3% (0 - 90% RH), ± 4% (90 - 100% RH)
Moon Phase 0.09% of a lunar cycle n/a ± 38 minutes
Rainfall 0.2 mm daily 0 to 999.8 mm ± 4%
Rain Rate 0.1 mm 0 to 2438 mm/hour ± 5% for rates less than 127 mm/hour
Solar Radiation 1 W/m2 0 to 1800 W/m2 ± 5% of full scale
Sunrise and Sunset 1 minute n/a ± 1 minute
Inside Temperature 0.1°C 0° to +60°C ± 0.5°C
Outside Temperature 0.1°C -40° to +65°C ± 0.5°C
Temperature Humidity Sun Wind Index 1°C -68° to +74°C ± 2°C
UV Radiation Dose 0.1 MEDs to 19.9 MEDs; 1 MED above 19.9 MEDs 0 to 199 MEDs ± 5% of daily total
UV Radiation Index 0.1 Index 0 to 16 Idex ± 5% of full scale
Wind Chill 1°C -79° to +57°C ± 1°C
Wind Direction n/a 0 to 360° ± 3°
Wind Speed 0.4 m/s 0.5 to 89 m/s ± 1 m/s