The Titan Weather Network (TWN) – IU South Bend Physics & Astronomy

Subsequent to installing a Tempest weather station at the IUSB observatory in March of 2022 (LINK to post about the IUSB station), we’ve started a collaboration to build a local network of weather stations — the “Titan Weather Network.”

We note that there’s already an impressive network of Tempest stations (LINK to WeatherFlow’s map of Tempest stations), with an easy-to-use web interface (and app) for visualizing data from individual locations.

The purpose of the Titan Weather Network (TWN) is to maintain our own observation database for TWN stations (which may eventually include stations from other brands) along with a web interface from which one can download observations for a specific time period. Our ultimate goal is to make it easy to generate textbook-style figures to illustrate meteorological phenomena based upon local weather events (i.e., that our students have experienced first-hand).

Thus far the TWN includes stations at the following schools (hyperlinks are to their individual Tempest pages), with their exact locations shown on a subsequent map:

IU South Bend
Adams High School (Not Yet Online or in Database)
Penn High School
Goshen High School

We’ve also included some personal stations, owned by friends and collaborators of this project, in the TWN, which are labeled based upon location and initials of the owner.

IUSB graduate student Le Le Kurczek has established a MySQL database for TWN data and created a web-based interface to facilitate easy retrieval.

An initial “proof-of-concept” MySQL database, along with python code to pull data from the IUSB station, was developed by dual physics and math major Emilee Edmonds on her personal computer.

Subsequently, graduate student Le Li Kruczek (Applied Math & Computer Science) and Prof. Henry Scott have collaborated to create a MySQL database, hosted on IU Sitehost, that is continuously updated with data from each station in the TWN (Le Li has done all of the coding and database work).

Additionally, Le Li has created a fully functioning web interface from which users can download data from any station for a specific time period:

Link to TWN Download Center.

Once downloaded, the data can be plotted and analyzed using whatever software one would like. Prof. Scott is particularly fond of Igor Pro and is working on import procedures to provide greater ease in organizing, managing and visualizing data; he would be more than happy to share this work with any local teachers who’d be interested in working with data for classroom use.

Example plot showing superimposed pressure, temperature and wind data from a notable cold snap during January, 2024, as measured by the Goshen HS station. Data were downloaded from the TWN and plotted using Igor Pro, Wind data are shown as red barbs at the top and combine relative speed information with directionality.

Data in this figure are also from Goshen HS, but about a week later as a warm front passed through the region, which produced freezing rain and resulted in partial campus closure at IUSB from Monday afternoon through Tuesday. Note the sharp increase in humidity around 9:00 a.m., as the temperature rose and the pressure dropped. One can also see the winds veer from southwesterly to westerly; all of these observations are consistent with the arrival of a warm front.

This plot compares the sharp rise in humidity as measured by both the IUSB and Goshen HS stations; note the roughly one-hour time offset between them, which is not surprising given the strong westerly component in wind direction and roughly 20-mile linear distance between stations.

If interested in joining the TWN (especially if you’re a teacher in the South Bend region), please reach out, as we may even be able to provide you with a Tempest station for your school.