The Meteorological Observatory Hohenpeißenberg is the oldest mountain

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

in the world. It is located in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Hohenpeißenberg Hohenpeißenberg is a municipality in the Weilheim-Schongau district, in Bavaria, Germany. Hohenpeißenberg is situated in the Bavarian Oberland, in the Alpine Foreland. It exists only as a local subdistrict. Geography The highest point is ...

, about 60 kilometres southwest of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and at 977 metres above sea level. Meteorological data is collected on the site continuously since 1781. The measurement series ranks among the longest ever, and was never impacted by

urban heat island Urban areas usually experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect; that is, they are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day, and is most apparent when winds ar ...

effects, a problem encountered by the comparably long records from the

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

observatories.Peter Winkler: ''Hohenpeißenberg 1781–2006 – das älteste Bergobservatorium der Welt.'' Page 3. See also: Literature. As of today, it is operated by

Deutscher Wetterdienst The () or DWD for short, is the German Meteorological Service, based in Offenbach am Main, Germany, which monitors weather and meteorological conditions over Germany and provides weather services for the general public and for nautical, avi ...

, and takes part in the Global Atmosphere Watch programme.

Literature

* Peter Winkler: ''Hohenpeißenberg 1781-2006 - das älteste Bergobservatorium der Welt.'' Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach am Main 2006, . * Deutscher Wetterdienst (Hrsg.): ''200 Jahre meteorologische Beobachtungen auf dem Hohenpeißenberg 1781-1980.'' Offenbach am Main 1981, .

References

External links

Station description from World Meteorological Organization

Station description from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hohenpeissenberg Meteorological Observatory Meteorological observatories Meteorological organisations based in Germany