Process data from a weather station with Linux
Weather Outlook

© Lead Image © Tithi Luadthong, 123rf.com
A DVB-T stick retrieves information from a professional weather station and stores it in a database for downstream processing.
If you frequently check the daily weather forecast, having your own weather station might be a good thing. However, professional devices are expensive, and they also mean that the amateur meteorologist is locked in to the display panels of the weather station vendor. As a rule, it is impossible to use the measured values in your own applications.
The cost driver is not typically the sensors in the weather stations, but the display modules. A DIY solution could handle the measurement-only tasks, but the sensor technology must be energy-saving and weatherproof. This is not easy to implement in a DIY project and adds to the overhead and costs. As an alternative, you could use the sensors of a professional weather station and draw on the data it provides for your project. In this article, I show you how to tap into the data stream of a weather station with a standard DVB-T USB stick, store the data in a database, and visualize it with Grafana [1].
Hardware
First of all, you need a sensor (Figure 1) suitable for your weather station project. Sensors like this are available for relatively little cash. I used a 5-in-1 outdoor sensor by Bresser [2] for around EUR80. The price and features can vary, and similar sensors with more features can be obtained at a lower price; it might be worth doing a little research. Bresser seems to restrict shipping to Continental Europe – the AcuRite Iris 06014 PRO+ [3] is a similar product that's available from Amazon.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.