Edmonton Alberta, Kildare Weather PWS

A personal weather station (PWS) is more than just a gadget for weather enthusiasts — it’s a practical tool that delivers hyper local, real-time data tailored to your exact location. Unlike regional forecasts that rely on distant sensors or generalized models, a PWS gives you accurate readings from your own backyard, including temperature, humidity, wind speed, rainfall, and barometric pressure.

This level of precision is especially valuable for gardeners, farmers, outdoor hobbyists, and anyone managing property or equipment affected by weather. It helps you make informed decisions — whether you’re planning irrigation, protecting sensitive electronics, or prepping for a storm.

Many modern PWS units also connect to online networks, contributing to community-based weather data and enabling remote monitoring via smartphone apps. Over time, your station builds a local climate archive, which can be useful for trend analysis, restoration projects, or simply satisfying your curiosity.

In short, a personal weather station turns passive weather watching into active environmental awareness, empowering you with data that’s timely, relevant, and uniquely yours.

As of December 27, 2025, I decommissioned my Oregon Scientific WMR-200 which had served me well for over 20 years. Several sensors (UV, Wind, Outdoor Temperature, Rain) had failed this year, and the cost of replacement was much more than the cost of a new station. In addition, I wanted to take the opportunity to move away from Cumulus 1.9 (which went out of support in 2014) to CumulusMX, which excellent support and a thriving user base.

I replaced the WMR-200 with an EcoWitt 2551 Display/Console and WS-69 Sensor array. The process went quite smoothly, even allowing for the fact that it was late December and -26 degrees Celsius here. The station is currently positioned about 2m above the ground on a pole because the permanent location (garage roof) is covered in snow and too dangerous to work on.

Later in the season I will be fitting a Lightening Sensor to the Ecowitt sensor net. This is a very useful accessory in the part of the world with our frequent thunderstorms in the summer.

I had 14 years of archived weather data which I have transferred to the new software: CumulusMX v4.

My new PWS (Personal Weather Station) running the CumulusMX interface can be found here.

I maintain a presence on Weather Underground as IEDMON356 .

I maintain a presence on PWS Weather as IEDMON356 .