Our Story

Background

The Community Weather Information Network (Co-WIN) was at first established under the joint effort of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), the Department of Applied Physics of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the Hong Kong Joint school Meteorological Association in 2007. It serves as a platform for providing real-time weather information to the public via a software and an internet website developed by PolyU. In 2009, an Executive Committee (ExCo) of Co-WIN was set up to steer the development of Co-WIN.

In 2017, the Institute of Future Cities of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) joined Co-WIN and participated in the operation of the website. In 2021, the Department of Geography of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has taken over from PolyU and CUHK to provide technical support for the software and operate the website. On 23 March 2021, a new Co-WIN website (https://cowin.hku.hk/) was launched. The new website provides an easy way for members to download Co-WIN weather data, which facilitates analysis and researches.

Objectives

• To disseminate referential meteorological information to the public;
• To promote education on meteorology and environmental science through the Co-WIN platform;
• To share the observation data collected between members of the Co-WIN.

Membership

Local or overseas schools and organizations are welcome to apply for membership. Let’s continue our story together.

Executive Committee

Executive committee manages and operates the Co-WIN. Interested members can apply for executive committee.

Member’s Obligation

A Co-WIN member institution is required to:

• Install an automatic weather stations (AWS) following the professional advices provided by HKO and HKU;
• Provide:
  • Latitude and longitude of the location of the AWS;
  • Photos of the environments in the four cardinal directions around the AWS for displaying in the photo gallery of the Co-WIN webpage;
  • A list of the parameters being collected by the AWS;
• Send standard-formatted data to the Co-WIN server for quality assurance check and display;
• Maintain the AWS in reliable working condition.

Member’s Benefits

A Co-WIN member institution can:

• Attain membership certificate;
• Download educational materials and meteorological data from the Co-WIN website;
• Borrow equipment for performing related educational activities;
• Participate in activities organized by HKO, HKU and CUHK, including training courses, visits to meteorological stations and radar stations of HKO and others;
• Assign staff to run in election of ExCo member of Co-WIN;
• Name and link of the member institution website to be displayed on the Co-WIN webpage;
• Use the Co-WIN logo in appropriate occasions for indicating their membership;

Please refer to Contact Us for more information on the application procedure.