The British have long been obsessed with the weather. If you’re fed up of waiting for the forecast, why not monitor the weather yourself?
For about £200, you can sample the weather thousands of times a day, manipulate the data on your computer and even publish it on your web page.
Projects based on gathering weather data have great educational and practical potential. They can be used for local forecasting; many places have unique micro-climates that aren’t covered by the general forecast.
Anyone whose activities are affected by the weather might want to collate weather data for themselves. Finally, it’s fun, so why not give it a go?
Weather stations typically come as a base station (often called a console), which is kept indoors and displays the data gathered by the sensors. One or more sensors are supplied, usually with an option to add more if required. Wireless communication between the console and weather sensors is the norm these days. The console is usually mains powered, while the external sensors run on batteries, although at the higher end of the market they can be solar powered.
The range of weather monitoring and gathering equipment is huge, and in this
brief survey we’ve split the kit into four broad categories by price. All prices
are approximate: as ever, it pays to shop around.
Functions and features increase with price. Always check the specifications for
any must-have feature: information on resellers’ websites can be sketchy, so
visit the manufacturers’ sites too. Finally, weather reporting comes with its
own jargon - it’s not necessarily that complicated, so check our boxout on page
34 to find the difference between a hygrometer and an anemometer.
Simple and fun: less than £50
The first lot of products in our round-up provide an always-on weather forecast
and can gather a little bit of local information, but can’t link to a PC.
Even the cheapest weather stations can provide an impressive amount of information, such as the La Crosse Wireless Weather Forecaster WS 7014 at about £28. It measures barometric pressure, can indicate the pressure trend and displays forecasting icons for the next 12 or 24 hours. It also measures indoor temperature and humidity and, from a remote wireless sensor with a 25m range, the outdoor temperature. Maximum and minimum temperatures can be stored with timestamps. It’s also a radio-controlled clock and calendar, and another two sensors can be added if required.
Oregon Scientific’s Wireless Weather Forecaster RMR683HG - about £35 - offers similar features plus an ice alert, an alarm on reaching high or low values for temperature or humidity, temperature trend and phase-of-the-moon displays.
More bells and whistles: £70-£170
More money means more features and several outside sensors, although they can’t
necessarily be connected to a PC. Note the price overlap between this band and
the next. An indication of what you’ll get in this price band is La Crosse’s
Anemometer Weather Station WS 9035. At about £80, it has an anemometer, which
measures wind speed, and a wireless temperature and humidity sensor, also known
as a thermo/hygrometer.
Displays include a weather tendency indicator, dew point and moon phases, and the anemometer and weather vane provide wind speed and direction, gust measurement, wind chill and a graph showing wind strength on the Beaufort scale.
Davis Instruments tends towards the accurate and expensive. At about £170, the Weather Wizard III comes with outside temperature monitor and an anemometer, and can calculate wind chill.
The console looks solid, but unexciting. It sacrifices stylish design for after-sales support, and includes a two-year return-to-base warranty.
