In May 2024, a weather station was put into operation on the meadow behind our company building. This weather station is operated and maintained privately and as a hobby by Jan Hagnberger. Contact was made with our colleague Stefan Sohmer back in 2022, as Hagnberger was looking for another suitable location for a weather station. He brought the suggestion to the environmental team and after a brief consultation, the proposal was approved and implemented. The young technical talent from Schenkenzell attaches great importance to reliable and accurate measurement data and therefore uses professional sensors, data loggers and system components. The devices come from various renowned manufacturers and meet all the requirements of the WMO guidelines (WMO = World Meteorological Organisation) and are also used by the German Weather Service and MeteoGroup, for example.

Our weather station measures

• the air temperature and relative humidity at a height of 2 metres above the lawn. The height of 2 metres above the lawn is prescribed by the WMO and the sensors are housed in a louvre to protect them primarily from direct sunlight and other weather conditions.

• the air pressure. An older aneroid barometer is used for this purpose. The barometric altitude formula is used to convert the air pressure to sea level. This is done in order to be able to compare it with other stations.

• the amount and intensity of precipitation. This is the device that looks like a pipe. The precipitation falls into a collecting container, which stands on a scale. The amount of precipitation can be determined by the increase in weight in the container.

All sensor signals converge in the control cabinet and are analysed by a data logger every second. The data logger averages the measured values over 10 minutes and outputs the mean value as well as the minimum and maximum values of the last 10 minutes. With the help of a single-board computer and specially developed software, the data logger is read out every 10 minutes and the measured values are transferred to a homepage where they are made available to the public.(Hardt weather station) The weather data is permanently stored in a database so that it can be analysed as required.

About the person:
At the age of about 10, Jan Hagnberger had three hobbies: weather observation, aircraft modelling and downhill mountain biking. As the wind has a strong influence on model aeroplanes in action, he made his first wind gauge using the simplest of tools. From this point on, his curiosity was aroused and his enthusiasm for meteorology and the technology behind weather sensors led over the years to the first professional weather station with its own website. Today, Jan Hagnberger is in the first year of his Master's degree in "Science and artificial Intelligence" at the University of Stuttgart. He has already successfully studied software engineering there and obtained a Bachelor of Science in this field.

The environmental team says "Thank you":

Reliable data from many weather stations can certainly help to create reliable information and data bases for a better understanding of weather dynamics in the future. They can also help cities, planners and companies to be better prepared for the ongoing challenges of climate change. In this way, BRUGGER can also make a valuable contribution to recording detailed measurements and providing them for analysis.

The environmental team would like to thank Jan Hagnberger for the professional realisation of this project and we are of course all delighted with the extensive weather data!

The recorded values from the weather station will soon be integrated into the BRUGGER website and the Hardt municipal website via a programmed widget. This means that the public will always be able to view the precise measurement data from our weather station in a structured and informative way.