High school students to use full-service weather station

Station data is on a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and in text messages.

Watch out meteorologists Steve Weagle and Glenn Glazer, there’s a new weather station in town.

Boynton Beach High School has received a $6,000 WeatherSTEM unit from the Tallahassee-based company of the same name. It was installed Thursday, and while it will be used by students and teachers, its data is available to the community.

The full-service weather station has a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and an option to receive current conditions through a text message.

WeatherSTEM will be used by students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes ranging from meteorology to aviation, and it’ll also be used by the athletics department and in television production, Principal Fred Barch said.

Next school year, the students might even be giving the weather forecast in the day’s announcements, he added.

WeatherSTEM CEO Edward Mansouri said he plans to donate the systems to one school or college in each of the state’s 67 counties. So far, Mansouri is about halfway through his goal. Palm Beach County is rare, though, and two schools, Florida Atlantic Universit y and Boynton High, were given the systems.

FAU got the system first. Then Mansouri said someone told him about Boynton and he thought it’d be a perfect fit.

The system has three components: the weather station, which is on top of the press box at the football field; an agriculture monitoring system, which is in the vegetable gardens; and a cloud camera that takes one picture per minute. The cloud camera is positioned near the science building overlooking a canal. The monitoring system and station send data to a digital console in a classroom, Mansouri said.

There are a variety of ways to get weather information from Boynton High: on the Web: palmbeach.weatherstem.com/bbchs; on Twitter: @BBCHSWx; on Facebook: search Boynton Beach Community High School WeatherSTEM; and by phone: call or text “bbchs” to 561-922-8547.

While the station is an educational tool for students to learn about weather, Mansouri said, they’ll also be able to mine and analyze data such as rain totals or temperatures. There are also lesson plans on the company’s website.

“It was a real great opportunity for us to bring this program to this school,” Mansouri said.

Have a Boynton Beach issue you’d like to see The Post tackle, or a story idea? Contact Alex Seltzer at 561820-4449 or ASeltzer@ pbpost.com.

PHOTOS BY LANNIS WATERS / THE PALM BEACH POST Luke Hunnewell installs the solar-powered, wirelessly connected weather station Thursday atop the press box at Boynton Beach High School’s football stadium. The state-of-the-art weather station from WeatherSTEM will allow Boynton High students to...

Sensors that collect soil moisture and temperature data are buried in the garden at Boynton Beach High School. The sensors are wired to a transmitter that also collects condensation data and communicates wirelessly with the rest of the weather system.

Soil moisture (top) and temperature sensors were later buried in the garden. The weather system will be used by STEM students, the athletic department and in television production.