# Where do those LED signs get their weather information from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035 "2024-09-09T23:51:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/1 "2024-09-09T23:51:02Z")
About a year ago the school across the street from my house installed one of those LED signs that alternates between displaying the current time, the current temperature, and whatever messages the school administration wants to display. But I always wondered where is that sign getting the temperature from? Does it actually have a thermometer or other type of sensor directly measuring the air temperature near the sign? Or is it connected to the internet and just grabbing the data from [weather.com](http://weather.com) or similar? There were simpler versions of that type of sign that just displayed the time and temperature going back to at least the 1980s, and I assume the ones from the pre-internet days were directly measuring the temperature, but is that still true for the modern versions? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/2 "2024-09-09T23:56:08Z")
At my store, our LED sign has a temp probe attached to it. If we wanted to display the temperature, it would use that. This isn’t my sign, but the temp probe is in the gray thing on the left. [![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5d6ee70ac4807e0001979eb0/1598041882334-DCN6B10PZARVDOAZN4Q2/Woodlands.jpg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg) ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5d6ee70ac4807e0001979eb0/1598041882334-DCN6B10PZARVDOAZN4Q2/Woodlands.jpg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg) Here’s a closeup [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OZ7OP6-KUvI/maxresdefault.jpg) ](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OZ7OP6-KUvI/maxresdefault.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/3 "2024-09-10T00:00:32Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Or is it connected to the internet and just grabbing the data from [weather.com](http://weather.com) or similar? They are connected to the internet, so I’d I’m sure they could be programmed to get their weather data that way as well. But I’m not sure if they can do that ‘out of the box’ or if it would require any internal/programming changes. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/4 "2024-09-10T00:10:59Z")
If there’s any Internet communication, I’d expect it to be the other way. After all, the weather websites have to get their data from somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/5 "2024-09-10T00:11:44Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > They are connected to the internet Gotta be careful that some smart kid doesn’t reprogram the sign to say something like: “CONGRATULATIONS TO NEW PRINCIPAL HUGH JASS” ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/6 "2024-09-10T00:12:15Z")
I just took a peek out the window and I can’t see anything that looks like a temperature probe, but maybe it’s just not visible from my vantage point. I’ll have to look more closely the next time I go for a walk. And yeah, I assumed the sign must have some kind of network connection, if not to the greater internet at least to the school’s wifi, so the school admin can program their custom messages. I suppose it’s possibly the temperature probe itself isn’t physically attached to the sign, but is elsewhere on school property and is communicating with the sign over wifi. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/7 "2024-09-10T00:12:23Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > Gotta be careful that some smart kid doesn’t reprogram the sign to say something like: It’s 5G, not wifi, so hopefully that won’t be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/8 "2024-09-10T00:48:08Z")
The main weakness seems to be leaving it on the manufacturer’s default password. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/9 "2024-09-10T02:08:06Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I just took a peek out the window and I can’t see anything that looks like a temperature probe, but maybe it’s just not visible from my vantage point. I’ll have to look more closely the next time I go for a walk. So after I put out my garbage cans this evening I walked over and took a closer look. It does indeed have a temperature probe that looks exactly like the one in the picture @Joey_P posted. As I suspected, it was just attached to the other side of the sign where I couldn’t see it from my window. Well I learned something today! I wouldn’t have even known what too look for if I hadn’t learned what the temperature probe looks like thanks to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/10 "2024-09-10T20:22:03Z")
I remember one of those on the approach to the Delaware Memorial Bridge in the late 60s. The time was around 11:30 PM and the temperature something like 98. Obviously not connected to the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-those-led-signs-get-their-weather-information-from/1007035/11 "2024-09-10T20:28:52Z")
That reminded me to look at my sign. It does, in fact, have the option to use the “Sensor at Sign” or “NOAA RSS Feed”. So there ya go, it can get it’s information either from the NOAA or the sensor mounted on the sign.