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<p>One of the pleasures of my work is that it provides a meaningful
reason to hunt for weather data in unusual places. I got a
request several days ago from someone who's involved in a
sustainable building project for a ski area in the Chilean Andes
and thus asked if I had any weather data for Farellones outside of
Santiago Chile two-thirds of the way up the Andes (see below)<br>
<img src="cid:part1.F6206825.6EF44CF0@whiteboxtechnologies.com"
alt="" class="" height="557" width="823"> </p>
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
This request sent me searching through my primary data sources -
NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly Database (ISD) and the
WeatherUnderground web site.<br>
When I looked in my map of ISD stations, I found a scattering of
stations along the coast and around the capital of Santiago, but
nothing in the mountainous areas.<br>
<img src="cid:part2.93F79A95.0AE33CD7@whiteboxtechnologies.com"
alt="" class="" height="697" width="769"> <br>
When I went to the WeatherUnderground web site (<a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.wunderground.com">www.wunderground.com</a>)
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Chile has a grid of
Personal Weather Stations (PWS) <br>
comparable to what I've seen for North American locations, with
one station at Lo Barnachea apparently right at the Ski Lodge
(Blue arrow below).<br>
<img src="cid:part4.9E7616C4.7E1EB3C3@whiteboxtechnologies.com"
alt="" class="" height="587" width="769"><br>
However, before declaring victory, I took a look at the data
quality at this station, and was a little disappointed. The
station (ILOBARNE16) had data for just barely a year, <br>
plus the wind anemometer seems not to be working:<br>
<p><img
src="cid:part5.49DFA8D0.10BB8F70@whiteboxtechnologies.com"
alt="" class="" title="dipopbfhgapeenbb.png" height="684"
width="768"></p>
But never say die... Since there are many stations nearby, I
kept checking and finally found one 10 miles to the west
(ISANTIAG104, red arrow on WU map above) <br>
that had wind speed and direction:<br>
<img src="cid:part6.04FE507E.0CACCEC6@whiteboxtechnologies.com"
alt="" title="unnamed_5.png" class="" height="672" width="772">
<br>
Piecing things together, I told the client that I can create a
single-year file for the ski area combining the temperature and
humidity from the lodge (ILOBARNE16) with the wind data from
ISANTIAG104 10 miles to the west, along with the cloud cover
data from the nearest ISD station
CHL_SANTIAGO-EULOGIO-SA_855800 further away to estimate the
solar radiation. Unfortunately, Chile is about the only piece of
the Western Hemisphere for which public satellite-derived solar
radiation is unavailable (I'll post something about this shortly
later). <br>
<br>
Although this weather file is not ideal, I'm pleased that I was
able to take the journey this far and provide something that's
quite usable. Besides, I didn't know until now that Santiago has
ski areas so close!<br>
<p>Joe- </p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="90">Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A
Moraga CA 94556
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:yjhuang@whiteboxtechnologies.com">yjhuang@whiteboxtechnologies.com</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com">http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com</a> for simulation-ready weather data
(o) (925)388-0265
(c) (510)928-2683
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"
</pre>
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