Home Weather Station?

[jyl]

Does anyone here have a home weather station aka personal weather station?

I have been interested for some time in installing one at my house. Something like a Davis Vantage Pro 2 looks good.

Wondering:
- How useful/interesting is having your own info/forecast/logging, compared to the weather info available on the internet? For example, on Weather Underground there is a station just 10 blocks from me. I doubt my temp and rainfall will be any different from his. But I can't see his full logged info and forecasts.
- How reliable/fiddly are these systems? E.g. are you always climbing on the roof to fix the anemometer, scooping bird poop from the rainfall gauge, etc.
- Advice on brands, models, software?

[Tidybuoy]

I have a weather station. It's just a basic system that I bought at Home Depot but I really like having it. I have sensors mounted outside that transmit data to a small (3 x 6) desktop station.

Mine is very basic and only monitors temp and humidity. I see that sell a new version that has wind and you can add a rain guage and I would like to get that to replace mine. My dad's system has a rain guage.

I like it because I can tell the temp in multiple spots in my yard which can vary a few degrees from each other. Also, my temps are always about 3 degrees lower that what's reported on the news but that is due to the fact that I live in a very heavy tree area and have shade most of the day. It also keeps track of the temps so I can see when the hottest & coldest days of the year were.

It's also a great gift for old people. I've given one to my dad, grandmother, and a few others and it has been a big hit. Of course, gadget guys like me like them too.

[stevepaa]

http://www.txwx.com/prod.htm

I bought one of these for my dad soem 20 years ago, and he enjoyed it.

the Davis one looks pretty nice.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by jyl

I have been interested for some time in installing one at my house.

OK, i'll bite.

Why?

You want a lifetime weather station? Just hurt your knees...

[masraum]

I've been interested in this a bit and have been looking around. THere are a few forums like Pelican for this sort of thing, and for those folks, the Davis VP2 $$ is the station to have.

There are a few other stations that are also popular (because they are decent and half of the price of the VP2).

I've started tinkering myself. I'm building one from scratch that uses the PC. It's more of a hassle and less plug and play, but is also less initial $$. I've got 4 temp sensors so far.

For me the interest is having the info, and historical info. I'd like to get the info logging to a SQL database and then be able to graph crap out of that.

I think they are pretty reliable, until you start modding the crap out of them, but even then, it depends upon what you do as to how reliable they are.

There's lots of info here, but it's also home of "Weather Display" software.
http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php

another active forum
http://www.wxforum.net/

[dhoward]

I've been using "WeatherDisplay" on a Lacrosse 2310 for 6 or 7 years.
Next harware will probably be a Davis.

[Racerbvd]

Yep, knees & shoulder tell me..

[masraum]

Originally Posted by dhoward

I've been using "WeatherDisplay" on a Lacrosse 2310 for 6 or 7 years.
Next harware will probably be a Davis.

Right, WeatherDisplay seems to be the favorite. I'm running Windows Vista 64bit, and I've had a problem installing it. I get an error, and it doesn't seem to work quite right, but then, I haven't purchased it yet, I've got it installed as a trial.

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by masraum

Right, WeatherDisplay seems to be the favorite. I'm running Windows Vista 64bit, and I've had a problem installing it. I get an error, and it doesn't seem to work quite right, but then, I haven't purchased it yet, I've got it installed as a trial.

Support is phenominal. The guy puts out a new release anytime someone finds an issue.
Email them.

[RWebb]

John, Davis is a big co. that used to sell into the pro. & scientific markets. No idea re their consumer stuff. I used to make "weather stations" for micro-meterology research... and we always made our own as most commercial stuff was not "frontiers of science" type stuff...

cup anemometers are common - you will need to worry about stall speed mainly as they do not respond to low wind speeds; also 'reach' - the distance of a parcel of wind is an issue...

or you can use a propeller type; a sonic anemometer; laser doppler, hot wires, heated beads, pitot tubes... even a suspended logging chain or ping pong ball

so, what exactly are you wanting to do?

do you want to know what the climate is for a sparrow under your tree? an ant behind a leaf?

'cuz the basic weather info by good amateurs near you is fine & is on the net...

OTOH, if you want to measure total solare radiation and partition it into Short wave & long wave components, get diffuse vs. direct beam, or any micro-met. stuff.... it can be done

[Bill Verburg]

I've got one built from Maximum analog instruments they are among the best I could find

[jyl]

The info reported by personal weather stations around me (I look them up on Weather Underground) varies.

Here are current readings from three PWS all within a mile of me.

Station #A #B #C
Brand Davis Unknown OregonScientific
Temp 69.2F 74.7 69.4
Humidity 70% 68 37
Wind Speed 0mph 0 NA
Wind Direction -- -- NA
Pressure 29.95in 30.18 29.98
Rainfall 0in 0 NA

We get some wind in the winter, and have some large old trees. I'm interested in how much wind is too much, as far as falling branches and other scary tree behaviour goes. But wind measurements by the nearby stations vary a lot, E.g. on 6/4/09 there was a thunderstorm with high winds and falling trees/power lines.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/06/trees_and_power_lines_fall_to.html
I looked up these stations' logged measurements for that day and see they don't agree at all.

6/4/09
Wind Speed (max) 28mph 6 NA (the 6 is not a typo)
Rainfall (max) 0.22in/hr at 1814 hrs 0.24 at 1850 hr 0.12 at 1814hr

I figure these readings are mainly being affected by location of the home and the sensors. I can't tell which system has been set up correctly by a "good amateur" so that it reflects the weather at my house specifically.

And, let's face it, I'm looking to geek out a little bit.

[RWebb]

re data varies...

the sensor reads the temperasture of the sensor (!)
- if you sticka thermocouple in the sun, you will need to do a heat budget analysis to figure out what is going on

similarly, even if a shaded t'cple is used, then you are measuring the T of the air mass where it sits -- I have recorded T's that vary by 2-3 oC over just a few meters distance when measuring heat budgets for ground nesting birds in terrain with small hummocks and depressions in it. That will go away in a good wind.

NWS has set stds. for weather stations - they are a certain distance above the ground, painted white with vents - you've no doubt seen them sitting in various places.


wind will be all over the place - ht. above gnd, above trees, distance from a wind break, eddy sizes... it is very complex to do a wind model of an area

so, the original query is "what do you really want to do?"
...

[sailchef]

www.iwindsurf.com

www.NOAA.gov

www.accuweather.com

I keep shortcuts to these on my desk top and in 30 secs I know whats happening anywhere here at the beach. If you take a few minutes the first time you use them to set up your location and the info you want out of each you will have more than you need.

20 years ago when I began windsurfing I had the whirly thingy on my roof attached to a monitor in my house, told wind speed direction, temp, humidity etc.

About 19 years ago after one of our usual nor'easters the thing was ripped off the roof. never replaced it. Besides that, local hi-rise buildings, highwys, bridges, trees, etc. will all effect the readings on these things because of the local micro weather systems they create.