Chicago Beach Weather Sensor Readings from Lake Michigan

Hourly weather measurements from automated sensors at Chicago Park District beaches along Lake Michigan. The Chicago Park District maintains the sensors, which capture data primarily during summer months. Data includes air temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation, and precipitation metrics.

Use Cases

• Analyze the correlation between Air Temperature, Humidity, and Solar Radiation to model heat index trends at specific beaches.
• Predict precipitation events using Time Series analysis on Interval Rain, Total Rain, and Rain Intensity columns.
• Cluster Station Name locations based on Wind Speed, Wind Direction, and Maximum Wind Speed patterns to identify sheltered or exposed beaches.
• Forecast sensor maintenance needs by modeling Battery Life decay against environmental variables like Wet Bulb Temperature and Barometric Pressure.

Strengths

• Includes 18 distinct measurement columns covering atmospheric, precipitation, and sensor health data.
• Data is collected hourly, providing fine temporal granularity for time-series analysis during operational periods.

Limitations

• Data availability is seasonal, primarily limited to summer months, creating gaps for year-round analysis.
• Unknown row count and temporal coverage limits assessment of dataset scale and historical depth.

Provenance

Source

Chicago Park District via data.cityofchicago.org.

Collection Method

Automated sensors capturing measurements hourly.

Time Range

Primarily summer months, specific years unknown.

Freshness

Last updated date is 2026-04-03, indicating active maintenance or future scheduling.

Geography

Beaches along Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront.