Digital Weather Station -worth the money?

[5hort5]

Originally Posted by earthdragon64

For a while now I've been dissatisfied with the accuracy of the weather reports on the TV. Not so much the forecasts, these are usually for very wide areas so are never going to be locally accurate anyway, but reporting of actual high and low temperatures and wind speeds often seems to be wrong.

This is very true especially for areas that have their own micro climates. The cheapest way of getting good information about temperatures, wind, etc after the event is from the local weather stations from the met office site. for example:

Met Office: Aviemore: latest weather

Real time information that is reasonably accurate can be gained from your own weather station if you wish though but they can never be as accurate as the link above (they wont be bad though)

Originally Posted by earthdragon64

I suppose I'm looking for something fairly easy to set up, and cheap to run that will give me accurate temperature readings, forecasting is a bit of bonus I wasn't expecting, I thought weather stations would only give actual readings.

Each part at a time:

Fairly easy to setup: The below links address - hopefully - the bit about setup and observations, they were a couple of basic articles I wrote a few years back for UKww. The setup of a weather station is kind of important as it will affect how it works. For example my anemometer is too close to the roof line of the garage at my new house so the direction reading is a bit poor, really it needs to be a good few feet above the roof line of the house, mind you if I do that then I really should get planning permission for it - doh!

http://www.5hort5.co.uk/downloads/obs.doc
http://www.5hort5.co.uk/downloads/station.doc

cheap to run: Well, the WMR928 oregon scientific I have isn't to bad. All external sensors use AAA battaries but are mainly powered by solar, the AAA tend to get used during the winter months and I find the sensor batteris need changing once a year. The base unit is mains powered but doesn't use that much. The power cost can start to mount when logging and uploading data as you tend to need (but not always) a computer running 24/7. I use a lower powered netbook for this job and tbh I haven't noticed anything bad on the bills but if you are really really keen on your carbon footprint then logging and uploading data is probably not for you so go for a none logging model like the last oregon scientific i posted (that has a nice UV sensor as well )

forecasting: Weather stations like these only give basic forecasting and in your environment I wouldn't put to much faith in them. If you want to get into that then looking at and gaining a basic understanding of weather modelling and the tools on the net are more the ticket and that's an art form in itself and not one I'm skilled at but I do like to look and make my own predictions.

The best mountain forecasts on the net (IMO) are here:

http://www.mwis.org.uk/areas.php

I wouldn't go walking in the lakes or snowdonia without consulting these first and I find them very reliable.

If you do go for logging this is the type of thing you can expect to get:

National Parks - Live weather station based in warrington

I have only just turned this back on again after moving house so some of the graphs etc need sorting out but you get the idea. EDIT (again) - this isn't just it though you can get year on year stats, your own highs, lows, biggest wind gust, you can upload your data to other weather sites and share with fellow weather enthusiasts, etc, etc, etc. (no more edits I promise)

accurate temperature readings EDIT: oops forgot that bit - yes you get this with the good stations but placement and shielding from direct sunlight is important, the manuals should give details and if not then weather sites will be able to help out.

One last thing I will say is that this can get rather addictive and become a real passion. If you think you are getting into it then buy a good unit now instead of wishing you had and then buying a good unit in six months. There are plenty of sites out there that can give far better advice than I and I can recommend UK weather world as a good place as they are massively experienced and willing to help beginners like me

[Elean0r]

Our little Swiss weather house, with a man and a lady, seems to be amazingly accurate at telling when it's going to rain.

Does anybody know how these expensive electronic gizmos can forecast weather, rather than saying what's happening at the time?

[earthdragon64]

Originally Posted by eeyore

easy - hang a string outside your bedroom window and just look at/feel it in the morning

if its horizontal its windy

if its wet then its raining

and if you cant bend it its freezing cold !

Originally Posted by 5hort5

Each part at a time:

Fairly easy to setup: The below links address - hopefully - the bit about setup and observations, they were a couple of basic articles I wrote a few years back for UKww. The setup of a weather station is kind of important as it will affect how it works. For example my anemometer is too close to the roof line of the garage at my new house so the direction reading is a bit poor, really it needs to be a good few feet above the roof line of the house, mind you if I do that then I really should get planning permission for it - doh!

http://www.5hort5.co.uk/downloads/obs.doc
http://www.5hort5.co.uk/downloads/station.doc

Thanks for the information, I couldn't get the first link to work, but the 2nd one was very interesting.

Originally Posted by 5hort5

cheap to run: Well, the WMR928 oregon scientific I have isn't to bad. All external sensors use AAA battaries but are mainly powered by solar, the AAA tend to get used during the winter months and I find the sensor batteris need changing once a year. The base unit is mains powered but doesn't use that much. The power cost can start to mount when logging and uploading data as you tend to need (but not always) a computer running 24/7. I use a lower powered netbook for this job and tbh I haven't noticed anything bad on the bills but if you are really really keen on your carbon footprint then logging and uploading data is probably not for you so go for a none logging model like the last oregon scientific i posted (that has a nice UV sensor as well )

I quite like the idea of batteries being backed up by solar power, the information on how long the batteries lasts is also useful, it isn't something that is often included in product information, probably because it is so variable, but it's nice to have an idea.

Originally Posted by 5hort5

forecasting: Weather stations like these only give basic forecasting and in your environment I wouldn't put to much faith in them. If you want to get into that then looking at and gaining a basic understanding of weather modelling and the tools on the net are more the ticket and that's an art form in itself and not one I'm skilled at but I do like to look and make my own predictions.

The best mountain forecasts on the net (IMO) are here:

MWIS: Mountain Weather Information Service

I wouldn't go walking in the lakes or snowdonia without consulting these first and I find them very reliable.

I wasn't really expecting any forecasting at all, that's a bit of an added bonus. I use the MWIS website and have found it very useful. However, like all forecasts, it can be wrong. One memorable time was when I was walking in the Monadliadth one February and got caught in a 15 minute blizzard when all that was forecast was snow flurries at high levels. Luckily I'm always well prepared when I'm hill walking.

Originally Posted by 5hort5

If you do go for logging this is the type of thing you can expect to get:

National Parks - Live weather station based in warrington

I have only just turned this back on again after moving house so some of the graphs etc need sorting out but you get the idea. EDIT (again) - this isn't just it though you can get year on year stats, your own highs, lows, biggest wind gust, you can upload your data to other weather sites and share with fellow weather enthusiasts, etc, etc, etc. (no more edits I promise)

I quite like the idea of keeping my own year on year stats, it will be interesting to compare my local weather against my moth trap records to see what effect, if any, the weather may have.

Originally Posted by 5hort5

accurate temperature readings EDIT: oops forgot that bit - yes you get this with the good stations but placement and shielding from direct sunlight is important, the manuals should give details and if not then weather sites will be able to help out.

One last thing I will say is that this can get rather addictive and become a real passion. If you think you are getting into it then buy a good unit now instead of wishing you had and then buying a good unit in six months. There are plenty of sites out there that can give far better advice than I and I can recommend UK weather world as a good place as they are massively experienced and willing to help beginners like me

I'm certainly going to have a good look around before deciding which unit I buy, thanks for all your suggestions.

[eeyore]

of course joking aside another option is a barometer and a note book - this has the major advantage of being non electronic and thus has lest to go wrong

you can also team them with a hygrometer and thermometer for the full weather station - and if mounted in nice wood they can look attractive hanging in your hall, lounge, stairwell etc.

we arent allowed to post comercial links but ive sent you a pm.

[5hort5]

No probs and hope it helps

eeyore - apologies I didn't know about not posting links but that's not really an excuse as I guess I should have read the forum rules, sorry. And yes I agree taking manual measures is a great way of getting information and recording it.

"Thanks for the information, I couldn't get the first link to work, but the 2nd one was very interesting."

The first link is 6mb in size and hence slow to download but should work after a while - I need to reduce the size of the images in it I guess :-)

[5hort5]

Originally Posted by Elean0r

Does anybody know how these expensive electronic gizmos can forecast weather, rather than saying what's happening at the time?

In the most part the same way as your house They take a mixture of readings and trends and work it out. In the most basic form you take the barometric pressure and the trend over time and say that a fast falling pressure will mean a low coming in and it'll rain, climbing pressure will probably mean mean settled and fine. Add temperature to this and you can guess at snow or rain, mix in wind speed and you can get a better understanding of how big an event will be. What it is a a set of programmed rules that we have know about for a centuries.

[larachmor]

Originally Posted by 5hort5

In the most part the same way as your house They take a mixture of readings and trends and work it out. In the most basic form you take the barometric pressure and the trend over time and say that a fast falling pressure will mean a low coming in and it'll rain, climbing pressure will probably mean mean settled and fine. Add temperature to this and you can guess at snow or rain, mix in wind speed and you can get a better understanding of how big an event will be. What it is a a set of programmed rules that we have know about for a centuries.

If it were as simple as that we would have no need for a Met Office - but the truth is - it isn't!! Even the Met Office get it wrong at times.
But "Earth Dragon" there are a whole host of weather stations available, and yes, it is very addictive once you start. I started mine nearly 10 years ago - based on a Davis weather station - the "Davis Weather Monitor II" This provides all you need - temperature ranges, wind speed/direction, pressure, rainfall and more. The system is linked to your PC - but - independent of your PC it will store the data for weeks until you are ready to download it. This then produces a variety of charts and graphs - daily, monthly and annual summaries.
The "Weather Monitor II" was a top-end system ten years ago, and although it is still an excellent bit of kit, the new Davis systems mean that you can pick them up much cheaper on E-bay and the like. I have had to replace one microswitch on the anemometer in the 10 years I've been running it - apart from that - it's been fault-free.
You can take a look on my website .....

Strathspey Weather

.... and if you need any advice - I'm not too far from you.

Another good link ..... Affordable Automatic Weather Stations [Prodata Weather Systems]


EDIT - A quick search only - to find this .... the Weather Monitor II at £380 - which is probably half of what I paid ten in 2001 - Maybe a bit more than you wanted to spend, but, you get a lot for your money, and Davis are probably the standard leaders in this field.

http://www.afeonline.com/shop/produc...roducts_id=798

[earthdragon64]

Originally Posted by larachmor

You can take a look on my website .....

Strathspey Weather

.... and if you need any advice - I'm not too far from you.

Another good link ..... Affordable Automatic Weather Stations [Prodata Weather Systems]


EDIT - A quick search only - to find this .... the Weather Monitor II at £380 - which is probably half of what I paid ten in 2001 - Maybe a bit more than you wanted to spend, but, you get a lot for your money, and Davis are probably the standard leaders in this field.

http://www.afeonline.com/shop/produc...roducts_id=798

Thanks for the information, and the offer of help, I've bookmarked your website. I still haven't totally decided which system to go for, but I like the idea of being able to upload data to my PC at a time to suit me rather than having a constant link.