OPW backs Weather Stations for Schools project

The Office of Public Works (OPW) is supporting a Weather Stations for Schools initiative which gives Primary Schools across Fingal, Co. Dublin, the opportunity to apply for an automatic weather station, producing real time information about rainfall, temperature, wind speed and wind direction.

The initiative has a dual purpose; it is aimed at helping children to enhance their knowledge regarding key challenges like Climate Change and flooding, while the data will benefit Met Éireann in monitoring rainfall.

Sixteen Primary Schools across Fingal County Council’s seven Local Electoral Areas will receive an automatic weather stations as part of The Weather Stations for Schools project, out of a total of 42 applicants.

The OPW is sponsoring weather stations for primary schools in Rush, Donabate and Portrane as part of the Outer Rogerstown Estuary Coastal Flooding scheme. The overall initiative is being supported by the Chief Executive’s Innovation Fund, set up January 2021 by the Chief Executive of Fingal County Council Ann Marie Farrelly.

The Deputy Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Daniel Whooley, launched the second part of The Weather Stations for Schools project in September at the Rush and Lusk Educate Together National School, when he presented Third Class with the first of the automatic weather stations that are being rolled out to primary schools across Fingal. The launch was attended by Oliver Nicholson from the Office of Public Works (OPW), as well as the director of Services for Environment, Climate Action and Active Travel, David Storey, Fingal County Council Executive Engineer, Kevin Vallely and Joanna Donnelly from Met Eireann.

Oliver Nicholson, Head of the Hydrology Section at the OPW, said:

“The provision of these rain gauges to 16 schools in the Fingal area will give students a greater appreciation of how weather variables are measured and made publicly available online. The weather stations provided by this initiative will be a useful educational tool that will broaden the student’s understanding of how rainfall measurements can be used for various purposes such as weather and flood forecasting, flood mapping, design of flood relief measures, hydrological modelling and drought monitoring. I am sure that the heavy concentration of these weather stations in the Fingal area will garner much attention from the research community for studies relating to the spatial variability of rainfall depths. I believe that this has great educational potential for all schools across the state, and would strongly expect that this initiative will be replicated in other Local Authority areas in the near future.”

Sarah Gallagher, Head of Observations at Met Éireann, said:

“Met Éireann are very supportive of the Weather Stations for Schools project. Schools can easily enter rainfall measurement and other weather information collected from their weather stations onto Met Éireann’s Weather Observations Website, WOW-IE. This is a global network of weather observations where the public can view and share their measurements. Not only are weather observations critical in helping meteorologists produce accurate weather forecasts, they provide an historic record of weather conditions that Met Éireann climate scientists use to monitor changes in the climate of Ireland.”

Left to right: David Storey, Director of Services for Environment, Climate Action and Active Travel; Kevin Vallely, Fingal County Council Executive Engineer; Joanna Donnelly, Met Eireann; Deputy Mayor Cllr Daniel Whooley; Oliver Nicholson , OPW and Deirdre Hurley, 3rd class teacher, Rush and Lusk Educate Together.