Culture

A Met Office WOW project manager had identified three types of amateur weather observers who contributed to WOW:

“The weather enthusiasts who are either very, very enthusiastic and perhaps have been keeping weather diaries, and weather logs for years. So from the very serious enthusiasts, and there are some very serious ones...

“And maybe as a category of – less meteorological enthusiasts, but people who are interested in mapping the weather to have a small weather station in their garden because they just like keeping an eye on what’s happening to the temperature or pressure.

“The other category is education, although I think it’s schools and certain teachers. STEM are very interested in WOW because it’s one of the few things they can see that actually supports every letter in the acronym, the science, the technology, the engineering, and the maths.”

An end in itself

The two observers we spoke to fell into the first two categories. For both these amateur observers, collecting and archiving data for its own sake were important activities. Specific plans for how to use their data were of less importance, although both had vague ideas about how they might use the data in the future for personal and professional research projects.

Data quality

Both of the amateur observers were concerned about data quality. Edward had taken great care to get the placement of his weather station as good as possible, and had consulted professionals to help set up his equipment. His weather observations were done to a near professional level. He demonstrated deep concern about doing it right and maintaining standards and quality.

In contrast, our hobbyist knew that his weather station was not well-placed and was aware of the resulting limitations of his data:

“So there’s a lot of sunlight which messes with the–, it doesn’t mess with the light reading, but it does mess with the temperature and relative humidity quite badly because it does heat up on the window sill. So I will record temperatures of 50 degrees in the sunlight... and because relative humidity is dependent on temperature, relative humidity shoots down as a result because it’s messing with that reading, and so relative humidity plummets – 20% relative humidity, what’s going on?”

Whilst his data was of limited use in the short term, it was serving as a useful learning experience, whilst he dabbled with the technology.

Tinkering

Our hobbyist observer, who had built his own station using a Raspberry Pi, was more of a tinkerer than Edward. Rather than aiming for quality and strict standards, this observer was driven by a passion for problem-solving and technology. Whilst the weather and science were of interest, they were secondary to the activity of making and tinkering.

“I always quite enjoyed Lego as a kid and specifically what I enjoy is the constrained solution. So if you’re trying to do something and you have these resources how can you best do what you’re trying to do? And so building the weather station isn’t so much, it’s kind of a subset of that but it’s why I get into a lot of programming of electronics. I got this neat idea how can I do it with what I already have, or getting the least amount of stuff possible off eBay and things like that.

“And so the Raspberry Pi weather station is just another version of–, I mean in this case I didn’t have to worry too much about getting the components, but it’s a project along that same sort of line. So I was interested in doing it.”

Individual pursuits and collective endeavours

For both the amateurs that we spoke to weather observing was primarily a solitary pursuit. No direct interactions with others – either online or in person – were sought, other than those incidental to setting up equipment and tinkering with the software. However, making a contribution to a wider community through sharing of data or code was perceived as important by both.

In earlier years, Edward was more actively involved in the Royal Meteorological Society and Climatological Observers Link, although these activities were somewhat peripheral to the primary activity of observing the weather. However, current time constraints meant that these relationships were now limited to sharing data through the Climatological Observers Link. This activity was something that Edward recognised as a contribution to a broader collective endeavour:

“So I mean it’s just the wider value of what you’re doing really, rather than just being isolated and actually, you know there’s a sort of a social benefit or a wider scientific benefit of collecting the data really.”

The Pi hobbyist we spoke to had decided not to share his data due to quality reasons. He did however, share online details of how to set up a Pi weather station and software code he had written for the project:

“I’ve been involved in several open source projects... trite, but sharing is caring sort of thing. It’s you do get a little bit of a... not jolt, but boost, or you get a little visceral pleasure of sharing and helping other people out and it would come under that. That’s the same reason why I’ve put this [code] in a lot of forums and stuff.”

Whilst the observers we spoke to were not actively engaged in the broader community of amateur weather observers, for others engagement with other weather observers is an important part of their practice.

There are several active amateur weather observers online forums. Some are dedicated to helping with technical support, whilst others are more interested in discussing locally occurring weather phenomena and extreme events. Our study of the Met Office’s WOW forum identified it as an online space focused on the technical and problem solving aspects of setting up and running your own weather station.

Personal satisfaction and intrinsic motivation

It was clear when speaking to both of our amateur observers that they got a lot of personal satisfaction from their weather observation activities. This satisfaction arose from being engaged in an activity that captured their attention and enthusiasms.

Both reported that engagement in and satisfaction from these and similar activities stemmed from childhood, and early encouragement from parents and teachers. Edward described how he had been a keen weather observer since he was seven years old.

For both observers an element of self-actualisation arose from their weather data activities related to their active engagement in the pursuit of knowledge, developing and using their skills and creativity, learning more about scientific phenomena, and helping others through sharing data or designs.

“I was sent a link to the AirPi project essentially and I thought this is very me because it combines several of my previous interests in the form of the electronics, the Raspberry Pi, the weather, programming, things I’d done during my degree course. And I thought this seems like a very nice way to try meshing knowledge in a new way. And so then I thought I’d build one.”