January 30, 2024

UMB’s Office of Sustainability worked with Operations and Maintenance to install a small weather station on the sixth-floor green roof of Health Sciences Research Facility III (HSRF III) in November 2023. This weather station takes measurements including temperature, humidity, solar radiation, UV, wind direction, and wind speed, among other data points, which can be used for research at the university. Readings taken from the weather station also will aid the work of other departments at UMB, including the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and Environmental Services (EVS) in responding to extreme weather events. Finally, the station is being used to ensure worker safety on campus construction projects. The PM2.5 sensor, which measures particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter, was added to the weather station to provide localized information about air pollution. 

Access the weather station data using this link.

Background

The Office of Sustainability first explored the idea of a campus weather station after creating a Tree Equity story map highlighting the inequities that exist in the distribution of tree canopy in Baltimore. This inequity leads to the urban heat island effect, meaning that areas with fewer trees absorb more heat and thus feel much hotter than their more shaded counterparts. When looking up weather for a particular city, the data displayed are typically readings from weather stations at the nearest airport. For Baltimore, these readings are taken at Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport, which is nearly 10 miles from UMB’s campus. Installing a campus weather station allows UMB to get more localized data on temperature and can help illustrate the effects of the urban heat island effect at the downtown campus.

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