Denver gets new National Weather Service monitoring station

November 12, 1:05 PMDenver Weather ExaminerTony Hake

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After 14 years without, there is now an official weather monitoring
station located near downtown Denver.  The product of a unique
public-private partner ship, the station provides real-time weather
conditions to citizens and professionals. (Examiner.com)  Be sure
to check out the slideshow below for more images of the station.

It only took 14 years but Denver finally has an official monitoring station near downtown. The new station amongst the greens of City Park Golf Course finally gives residents of Denver a place to see what the weather is doing closer to home.

With the opening of Denver International Airport in 1995, the National Weather Service moved its station to the new airport. That distance of 12 miles from the old Stapleton facility to DIA confounded citizens, television meteorologists and weather enthusiasts as they all noted that no one lives out at the airport and the conditions reported there do not reflect what is happening closer to town.

• Slideshow: A look at Denver's new weather station
• Map: Interactive map of the locations Denver weather records have been taken from

Recognizing the problem, a public-private partnership came together to do what they could to rectify the problem. The City and County of Denver, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the National Weather Service and NOAA, 7News Chief Meteorologist Mike Nelson and Colorado State Climatologist Nolan Doesken identified a site for the new station.

Eclar Fence and Mercury Electric donated the infrastructure for the new site. Weather equipment manufacturer Vaisala donated the weather monitoring hardware and services, estimated at up to $60,000.

The new station is near the 12th tee on the golf course, highly visible to those driving the greens. The equipment has the capability to measure wind speed and direction, temperature (actual and wind chill), barometric pressure, visibility, relative humidity, dew point, heat index, and precipitation measured in the last hour, in the last day and in the last year.

Mike Nelson said in a press release, "This new highly accurate weather station in the heart of Denver will provide more precise data, helping us better predict short term weather and track our changing climate.”

A sign at the station site touts the partners involved with the
new station. (Examiner.com)  Be sure to check out the slideshow
below for more images of the station.

The data the station collects will become part of the official climate record for Colorado. It can be viewed online in a number of places including the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s website, the National Weather Service’s website and on the Weather Underground.

Certainly there is little doubt the new station will provide area residents the ability to view conditions closer to where they actually live. The new station will not however address the very real problem of Denver’s climate records having been altered since the move to DIA. The National Weather Service has said the official records for Denver will still come out of DIA and as such many believe those records come with an asterisk. See the sidebar above for more information on the controversy.

Related: DMNS Announcement - Forecasting from the Heart of Denver

View Denver Weather Monitoring Locations in a larger map