Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Weather bike: A bicycle based weather station for observing local temperature variations

John J. Cassano

2014, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 95, 205-209, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00044.1

A simple and low-cost method for observing local temperature variability using a Kestrel 4000 handheld weather station mounted on a bicycle, dubbed the weather bike, is presented. Observations with the weather bike show large (up to 10°C) variations in temperature over horizontal distances of less than 1 km. This temperature variability is due to cold air drainage and pooling and to differences in land use. This data collection method and the resulting local weather observations can be used to enhance educational opportunities in undergraduate and graduate atmospheric science classes. Topics that would benefit from this observing strategy include topographic controls on temperature and diurnal wind systems, controls on local temperature, surface energy budget, static stability, and instrumentation issues such as instrument response time and radiative heating and ventilation requirements for temperature observations.