View source for Remote Automated Weather Station

[[File:2012-06-26 16 00 00 Ruby Lake Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) at Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Elko County, Nevada.jpg|thumb|Remote Automatic Weather Station (RAWS) with TriLeg tower at Ruby Lake [[Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge]], [[Elko County, Nevada|Elko County]], [[Nevada]]]]
The '''Remote Automatic Weather Stations''' ('''RAWS''') system is a network of [[Automatic weather station|automated]] [[weather station]]s run by the [[U.S. Forest Service]] (USFS) and [[Bureau of Land Management]] (BLM) and monitored by the [[National Interagency Fire Center]] (NIFC), mainly to observe potential [[wildfire]] conditions.  

Unlike the [[automated airport weather station]]s which are located at significant [[airport]]s, RAWS stations are often located in remote areas, particularly in [[United States National Forest|national forest]]s. Because of this, they usually are not connected to the [[electrical grid]], but rather have their own [[Photovoltaic module|solar panel]]s, and a [[battery (electricity)|battery]] to store power for overnight reporting. Some instead run on a [[Electrical generator|generator]]. In both cases, data important to operating the station itself, such as battery [[voltage]] or [[fuel]] level, is often included in the hourly reports.

Also because of the remote locations, most communicate with a radio connection to a [[Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite|GOES]] [[satellite]].

In this regard, they are similar to [[mesonet]]s and may be mesonets if the distance between stations (spatial resolution) is sufficiently dense.<ref>{{cite book |last = Zachariassen |first = John |author2 = K. Zeller |author3= N. Nikolov |author4 = T. McClelland |title = A Review of the Forest Service Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) Network |publisher = Rocky Mountain Research Station, National Forest Service, U.S.D.A. |date = 2003 |series = Gen. Tech. Rep. |volume = RMRS-GTR-119 |location = Ft. Collins, CO |url = https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr119.pdf }}</ref> They often lack the consistently high-quality data needed for use in [[numerical weather prediction]] and [[climatology]], however.<ref>{{cite conference |first = Beth L. |last = Hall |author2 = T. J. Brown |title = Comparison of weather data from the Remote Automated Weather Station network and the North American Regional Reanalysis |book-title = 14th Symposium on Meteorological Observation and Instrumentation |publisher = American Meteorological Society |date = 2007-01-16 |location = San Antonio, TX |url = https://ams.confex.com/ams/87ANNUAL/techprogram/paper_120445.htm }}</ref> [[Road Weather Information System]] (RWIS) may likewise be self-powered and located in remote areas.

==Portable RAWS==
There are times when a portable weather station is required, such as planned ignitions, wildfires, and other projects where there is a need to collect and share weather information.<ref>{{cite web|last=Henry|first=Bryan|title=FIRE WEATHER STATION STANDARDS & GUIDELINES|url=http://raws.fam.nwcg.gov/nfdrs.html|work=National Interagency Fire Center|accessdate=19 February 2014}}</ref>  
[[FTS - Forest Technology Systems LTD#Portable RAWS|Portable]] stations may also be referred to as "quick deploy" or QD, and this should be indicated within the name of the station to allow proper interpretation of the collected data. 

==External links==
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* [http://raws.fam.nwcg.gov/ National Interagency Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS) Homepage]

{{Earth-based meteorological observation}}
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[[Category:Meteorological stations]]
[[Category:Wildfire prevention]]
[[Category:Wildfire suppression equipment]]


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