A monitoring system for an escalator including: a local gateway device; an analytic engine in communication with the local gateway device through a cloud computing network; a sensing apparatus in wireless communication with the local gateway device through a short-range wireless protocol, the sensing apparatus including: an inertial measurement unit sensor configured to detect acceleration data of the escalator, wherein at least one of the sensing apparatus, the local gateway device, and the analytic engine is configured to determine an operating mode of the escalator in response to at least the acceleration data; and an application for a computing device, the application being configured to display weather data simultaneously with the operating mode of the escalator on a display device of the computing device.