Household or personal weather stations are popular among weather enthusiasts who are interested in monitoring weather conditions and for storing these measurements and comparing them to long term averages (local or regional climatology). Most weather stations monitor temperature, humidity (or dewpoint), barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, and precipitation. The stations feed these data into a local base station that is usually connected to the internet and/or a local console display. Many of the newer weather stations also include a wide array of sensor technologies, either as part of the core system, or as add-on sensors, which estimate values such as solar potential, ultraviolet (UV) exposure, or air quality. The data are gathered at regular intervals—often every 5 minutes, every 30 minutes, or every hour—and detailed graphs and tables of weather and environmental data help connect local environmental conditions, the technologies that might mitigate exposure, and the impacts these conditions might have on people in the region.

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The EcoCasa weather station and environmental monitoring initiative started in 2018, as part of an ongoing collaboration between the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), the Agnese Nelms Haury program in Environment and Social Justice, and the University of Arizona Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA). Faculty supported by CLIMAS and the Haury program were looking for ways to connect environmental data and monitoring to ongoing work in the Nogales region. The Small Scale Solar Implementation Project in Ambos Nogales, funded by the U.S. EPA Border 2020 program,  provided an excellent opportunity for collaboration and piloting an environmental data and data visualization initiative. The purpose of the small scale solar project was to assess the value and feasibility of small-scale solar energy production in Ambos Nogales (Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora) for reducing demand from traditional energy sources. Among the outputs of that project was the installation of solar PV panels at the EcoCasa, a demonstration house built on the campus of the Centro de Capacitación para el Trabajo Industrial 118 (CECATI 118) in Nogales, Sonora.

After the panels were installed and operating, to address key questions about solar energy production and its relationship to weather conditions, Dr. Ben McMahan from CLIMAS and BARA led the effort to add a sensor monitoring component to support ongoing environmental data collection (temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation, barometric pressure, solar radiation, and air quality) and solar PV monitoring (instantaneous, hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly solar production). Dr. McMahan, along with staff and students from the University of Arizona, Jose Rodriguez, and the CECATI 118 administrators Eduardo López Guaydacan and Jorge Moreno, installed the weather station and connected the data to a standalone weather data portal and to the “Weather Underground” network. The weather and environmental data from the weather station and sensor array are also used to help explain the connection between elements of the EcoCasa, such as the fibrous concrete wall construction, and local weather conditions.