Any preferences?

[Quoted] 2000+ data stations, all being polled half hourly or thereabouts.

Each station returns two values, it's measurement, and when it was taken.

Metadata associated with each station is already stored in a different table. Including a unique ID.

Problem: How to store information for these stations

Possibilities

one table with 4000+ columns...
[Quoted] 2000+ tables....of two or three columns

[Quoted] Or is it sensible to have a really simple table with id,station_id,value,time fields and an indices on staion_id, time to enable search by station time series or search by time for a selections of stations?

[Quoted] Or have you a better idea?

I can't seem to find the optimal way to create a 3D database..

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