Designing, Building and Installing an Updated Weather Station on Baldy (12,650')!

This fall we upgraded the Baldy weather station, located at 12,650' elevation, above the cirque terrain of the Snowmass Ski area.

This weather station gives key information to the patrol about snow loading and other conditions in the Cirque. The large fetch of snow and consistent moderate to strong South to Southwest winds result in slab formation in much of the Cirque terrain. Using these data along with data from our other weather stations is one component in understanding the snowpack and planning mitigation needs on a daily basis.

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The station previously provided wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometer, and radiation data using a combination of a variety of different sensors and a Campbell Scientific CR10x-pb. The station relays the information wirelessly via a radio link to the sundeck at Aspen Mountain where it is then connected into a network via ethernet.

This year, we added a new Lufft WS501 UMB smart weather sensor (https://www.lufft.com/products/compact-weather-sensors-293/ws501-umb-smart-weather-sensor-1839/) , an all in one sensor that can measure

• Temperature

• relative humidity

• air pressure

• wind direction

• wind speed

• radiation

in one unit. The sensor has a greater power draw than all the older units, as it has a built in heater to keep the unit clear of ice and snow. As there is no readily available power available at the Baldy site, this required designing a relatively large solar array to keep the unit powered.

2, 12V, 100Ah batteries set up in parallel

I did a fair number of calculations to create a system that met the following criteria:

• capable of continuously running and powering all equipment even if no sun is visible for 5 days

• surviving harsh alpine environments

• compatible with the existing hardware and software in addition to the new sensor

• replaceable components

• safety (fuses, circuit breakers, etc)

• capable of operation at either 12V or 24V

mid stage image of the data and power enclosure

Planning the mounting and placement of the solar panels before going to the ridge:

With all pieces complete and wanting to get ahead of an incoming storm, we brought all components to the ridge and successfully installed the new weather station!