Weather station in Sewickley Township to help municipal crews, residents

A weather station installed in Sewickley Township will help municipal and emergency management crews make quick location-specific decisions.

“During the (weather) event itself, I would be heavily accessing that data,” said Jason Ritchie, a deputy director of the township’s emergency management agency.

It’s a tool residents can use, too, to get detailed local weather information.

The weather station was purchased by the agency for $1,100 and public works crews installed it about a month ago at the township building near Herminie and Rillton. The device is about 70 feet in the air and collects data such as temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity and precipitation, he said.

That information is then directed to a website and a smartphone application. The options give township crews a central place for up-to-the-minute weather information.

Ritchie said he thinks it will come in handy with spring approaching.

“It’s live, real-time data,” he said. “We’re grateful that the township supervisors permitted us to use this and put it up on their tower.”

The smartphone app is available for Android and Apple smartphone users. Android users can download the RainWise - Real-time Weather+ app in the Google Play store.

Apple users can download the same thing in the app store. To access Sewickley Township’s data, type in the station code: DO273E. The same weather information is available online.