The FifeWeather station is based on Oregon Scientific WMR928NX weather station hardware and was first installed in February 2006, with data records commencing on the 17th of the same month.

The station hardware consists of four separate wireless sensors which transmit data back to a control console.  The console communicates the data received from the sensors, to an adjacent computer (running "Weather Display" software) dedicated to the task of recording the data and updating the web pages on the web server.

With the exception of hardware and/or software failures, the weather station runs 24x7x365.

The four meteorological sensors that make up the station consist of a "tipping-bucket" rain gauge with ~0.35mm bucket resolution, an external thermometer/hygrometer (for temperature & relative humidity) housed in a small passive radiation shield, a combined anemometer/wind vane for measuring wind speed/direction (installed approximately 9 meters above ground level), and an internal barometer/thermometer/hygrometer which is primarily used to report on air pressure (but also reports on indoor temperature and relative humidity).

The three external sensors are each attached to their own transmitter module containing a small solar panel for power.  These transmitter modules also contain a small rechargeable cell to provide power in the absence of sunshine, along with 2 AA cells for backup purposes.

Data is transmitted from the sensors approximately once every 45 seconds, with the exception of the anemometer/wind vane which transmits back to the console every 14 seconds.

The location of each of the sensors has been selected to provide the best possible readings within the constraints of the installation environment.

The station itself is located at 423 feet above sea-level on the Northern side of Lochgelly in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. The station is positioned close to the North Western outer edge of a built up area, with fields and farmland beyond the urban area to the North and West. A golf course is located to the South West and further built up areas to the South, East and North East. Loch Ore, a large body of water, is located approximately 2.5 to 3 miles away, to the North North West.

The adjacent aerial photograph illustrates the geography directly surrounding the FifeWeather station. The edge of the golf course is visible in the bottom left hand quadrant of the photograph, with the expansive farm land visable to the North and North West of the built up area. (Image copyright Getmapping Plc www.getmapping.com, used with permission.)