So how does all that weather data get on the website?

First is the weather station itself.
It is a Davis Vantage Pro2 wireless weather station comprised of 3 components: the ISS (integrated sensor suite), annenomenter, and indoor display console.

The outdoor equipment has sensors that give the real time weather data. The ISS (integrated sensor suite) is powered by a solar panel with a capacitor that stores the solar energy to run the equipment at night and on cloudy days. It also has a battery backup for cases of extended dark weather. Behind the solar panel are the electronics that gather the information from the sensors, and transmit the data to the indoor display console. This is done with a wireless transmitter.

The white ribbed section on the bottom house the temperature and humidity sensors. This section is designed to shield the sensors from direct sun to give accurate readings.

The round black section is the rain collector. Inside it is funnel shaped. As the rain water collects, it runs through a small hole at the bottom of the funnel, and then slowly runs into the tipping buckets. As one side of the tipping bucket fills, it tips down from the weight of the water, and starts collecting on the opposite site. Each tip of the tipping bucket equalls .01" of rain.

The anemometer measures the wind speed and direction. The vane on top points in the prevailing wind direction while the wind cups spin with the wind intensity.

The data is transmitted to the indoor display unit every 2 seconds. The display console receives this data, and displays all the weather parameters. It has many switchable screens to display all the different data that is collected.
Also in the console is a data logger. This stores all the data for downloading to a computer.

The software that gathers the data from the data logger in the console is Weather Display. Weather Display takes this data, and configures many different graphs and charts.
Then the data is uploaded to this website via FTP. The graphs charts and information is uploaded every 15 minutes.
Also, raw data is uploaded to NOAA in State College, and wunderground.