Published Tuesday 2 February 2021 at 13:55
Two new weather stations, one in Blackburn and one in Darwen have been installed to help the Council better prepare for severe weather in the borough.
The existing weather station at Belmont is due a significant upgrade and in place of undertaking these necessary improvements the Highways service has invested in two new innovative stations as a cost neutral solution.
Because the new stations are powered by a new Off Grid Power Solution (wind and solar powered), they are also helping the Council work towards our climate emergency targets for the borough. As they are not connected to usual Mains power the new installations are also saving BwD communities money.
Assistant Executive Member Growth and Development, Councillor Zainab Rawat said: “Fantastic to see the new weather stations installed for BwD. These help ensure our road networks are ready when severe weather hits, and because they are solar and wind powered this helps us tackle the Council’s climate emergency targets, as well as saving money.”
The weather stations will improve the forecasting model thanks to the increased data provided. And two new CCTV cameras will provide still images every 10 minutes giving us a view of the BwD network, to assist with decision making at the time of severe weather. The weather stations will also help ensure network support is accurate, for example when we may need to treat Blackburn differently to Darwen, and vice versa.