A web-based autonomous weather monitoring system of the town of Palermo and its utilization for temperature nowcasting

Abstract

Weather data are crucial to correctly design buildings and their heating and cooling systems and to assess their energy performances. In the intensely urbanized towns the effect of climatic parameters is further emphasized by the "urban heat island" phenomenon, known as the increase in the air temperature of urban areas, compared to the conditions measured in the extra-urban areas. The analysis of the heat island needs detailed local climate data which can be collected only by a dedicated weather monitoring system. The Department of Energy and Environmental Researches of the University of Palermo has built up a weather monitoring system that works 24 hours per day and makes data available in real-time at the web site: www.dream.unipa.it/meteo. The data collected by the system have been used to implement a NNARMAX model aiming to obtain short-term forecasts of the temperature and map them over the monitored area.