Palmy Weather Mobile Console

January 2009 saw the launch of the "Palmy Weather" website, providing live weather data it was gathering to the community of Palmerston North and the wider Manawatū. This site has now been operating for over 17 years and has become a valuable and accessible resource to the region. It is an easy to use website where people can get live weather readings for the city of Palmerston North as well as information regarding the rest of New Zealand and live webcams. This weather station is located just west of the city centre and data is updated automatically every 10 seconds.

In the early days, an off-the-shelf "Fine Offset" WH1081 weather station was in operation from 2009 until 2015 before a custom home built "WeatherDuino Pro2" system was assembled and used. This home built system provided more reliable data gathering with a wider range of environmental sensors that were implemented over time. This included wind, rain, temperature, solar/UV, ground moisture and temperature and air quality. The system was fully customisable, using an "Arduino Nano" processor in most of the transmitting and receiving devices and was connection to a Windows PC running "CumulusMX" via a USB port to process and upload the raw data to the Palmy Weather website for displaying.

Ten years on, the home built system was showing its age with many parts requiring replacing and these components becoming harder to find or expensive. Off-the-shelf technology had significantly developed over the 10 years this home built station was in operation. An investment into the Ecowitt framework of sensors was made and fully deployed at the start of 2026 after months of robust testing. Along with the now standard sensors provided by the home built station, more advanced technologies could be introduced including lightning and storm tracking, more accurate air quality system along with a more reliable rain gauge which offered a larger catchment reducing splash out, no vibration issues and includes spider/bug protection. The wind sensors have been upgraded to a system with no moving parts providing the need for less maintenance.

Now there are over 20 sets of environmental data being sent from external sensors every few seconds to the receiver where it is processed before being passed onto CumulusMX software via an IP network for further analysis and uploaded onto the Palmy Weather website where our users can view a range of live and historic data in a variety of formats including tables and graphs.

The full list of Ecowitt weather hardware and model numbers include:
GW3000 Ecowitt Wi-Fi Server, WS90 Wittboy 7-in-1 Outdoor Weather Sensor Array, WH40H High-top 19cm⌀ Self-Emptying Rain Gauge, WH45 5-in-1 Air Quality Sensor, WH31 Thermometer Hygrometer, WN34S 30cm Soil Temperature Sensor, WH51 Soil Moisture Meter, WH57 Lightning Detection, and finally HP2560_C 7-Inch TFT Weather Station Display Screen to visually see all this data.

Station specifications and limitations:
1) All outdoor temperature ranges: -40°C to +60°C (±0.5%)
2) Indoor temperature range: -40°C to +60°C (±0.5%)
3) All humidity ranges: 0% to 100% (±3.5%)
4) Rain volume resolution: 0.1mm (±5%)
5) Wind speed resolution: 0km/s to 144km/s (±0.36km/s)
6) Air pressure: 300hPa to 1100hPa (±5%)
7) UV Index: 1 to 15 UVI (±2)
8) Solar Radiation range: 0W/m2 to 1500 W/m2 (±25%)
9) PM2.5: 0ug/m3 to 999ug/m3 (±15ug/m3)
10) PM10: 0ug/m3 to 999ug/m3 (±25ug/m3)
11) CO2: 0 - 40000ppm (±25%)
12) Lightning: 40km detection range
13) Soil Moisture: 0 to 200AD / 0% to 100% (±5%)
14) Transmission frequency: 433MHz, 100m+ range

Hardware System History Summary:
1/1/2026 to Current: Ecowitt Modular Environment Systems
1/11/2015 to 1/1/2026: WeatherDuino Pro2 - Homebuilt
1/1/2009 to 1/11/2015: WH1081 - Fine Offset Electronics

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Palmerston North (Maori: Te Papa-i-oea) is the main city of the Manawatū-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is an inland city with a population of 80,079 (2013 census) making it the 8th largest city in New Zealand. A large proportion of its population consists of students attending Massey University, Universal College of Learning (UCOL) or International Pacific College during the student year. Over half of the city's population is under the age of 25 and the city has been marketed as 'Student City'.

The Name The city was first named "Palmerston", in honour of Viscount Palmerston, a former Prime Minister of Great Britain. The suffix "North" was added in 1871 by the Post Office to distinguish the settlement from Palmerston in the South Island, though locals still widely refer to the city simply as Palmerston or "Palmy". Locals are known as Palmerstonians. The Maori transliteration of Palmerston is "Pamutana", but this is largely unused, with Papa-i-oea (commonly contracted to Papaioea) being the preferred option, e.g. Te Kura Kohine o Papaioea (Palmerston North Girls' High School) and Te Hohipera o Papaioea (Palmerston North Hospital). Papa-i-oea is believed to mean "How beautiful it is".

The History Ngati Rangitane were the local Maori iwi (tangata whenua) living in the area known as Te Ahu-a-Turanga, when a trader, Jack Duff, became the first known European to explore the area in 1830. He came on a whaling ship, and explored as far inland as the site of Woodville. He reported his discovery on arrival back to Porirua. Colonel Wakefield heard of the potential that the Manawatū had for development and visited in 1840. In 1846 Charles Hartley, another trader, heard from tangata whenua of a clearing in the forest and he proceeded through the dense bush and forest and discovered it for Europeans.

The Government surveyed the area in 1866-67. The original subdivision of Palmerston North was made in 1866, in the natural clearing in the Papaioea Forest, as found by Hartley. A township was laid out by J.T. Stewart, an employee of the Wellington Provincial Government.

Stewart's plan consisted of a series of wide and straight streets, laid out in a rectangular pattern, with the focal point being an open space of 17 acres (7 ha) subsequently known as The Square. Landmarks named after Stewart included Stewart Crescent in Palmerston North and Mt Stewart, near Sanson.

The four original streets meeting at the Square are now called Fitzherbert Avenue (from the south), Main Street East, Main Street West and Rangitikei Street. As the settlement grew, the forest diminished to make way for farms, and today virtually no remnant of it survives.

By 1877, when the Borough Council came into existence, Palmerston North was an isolated village in the midst of the native forest that covered inland Manawatū. The population was approximately 800 people and sawmilling was the main industry of the district. The arrival of the railway in 1886 saw an increase in the speed of growth, and by 1900 the population was 6,000. By this time the town was at the centre of a lucrative agricultural district.

In 1930, the population reached the 20,000 threshold and Palmerston North was officially proclaimed a city. Development was slow due to the great depression and World War II. An airport was established at Milson in 1936, which is now Palmerston North International Airport. After the war growth was rapid, with the population rising to over 50,000 by the mid 1970s.