Weather Station Equipment?

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Thunderknight

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Regardless of which station you buy...the installation location is very important. Make sure you have sufficient distance from obstructions for the anemometer, the temp sensor isn't over a hot roof, rain gauge is in the open, etc. Otherwise the priciest of stations won't give you accurate readings.
"official" measurements are usually temp 2 meters above a grass surface, and winds at 10 meters.
 

a417

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.the installation location is very important.
...and you have to weigh in access to the system hardware at the same time. I saw someone mount a battery powered unit on the peak of their roof, that required a 22ft extension ladder to change the batteries twice a year. Not exactly something I would want to do when its icy, when its dark, hell...any time.
 

ems55

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Hey ems55, I am sorry, wasn't ignoring you just now seen your post. I believe this is the link but if you do a search in the forums for weather stations you will find a few.

No problem !! Thanks for sharing
 

Jay911

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I had a PEET 2100 on my fire station for several years, and after about the third time having to replace anemometer cups and/or vane due to wind damage, I looked for a different station. This fall I replaced the PEET with a WeatherFlow Smart Weather Station. It doesn't provide me with a dedicated display on my desk at the station, but it makes up for that by having a web interface I can put on a browser page, plus an app on my phone. There are no moving parts, and so far it has performed fairly well. It doesn't measure snow accumulation, but I'm not sure the PEET ever did that properly either. I get a few extra measurements/data than I did with the PEET, like UV, lightning detection (though I am getting some false readings from that sensor), and a few others. It's also battery and solar powered, and communicates wirelessly with its hub in my station's office, so I don't need to have cables run up to the station mount point any more.

I feed Weather Underground directly from the device (the app has native support), and CWOP/APRS via a PC application called Weather Display that is running on my fire station server, pulling data from the hub over wifi and pushing it to CWOP once a minute. The local TV station is using our weather data on their reports & forecasts nightly.
 

pro106import

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I highly recommend my Ambient Weather WS-2902a
I got it on sale for $129 from them. It's $149 right now.

My data is sent to the Weather Underground site, Ambient Weather site, PWS site, and Weather Cloud site!
And it connects to your Google Home device also
The best station for the low cost IMHO


Bob
 

jwt873

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Just to add... A friend of mine just ditched his aging Davis Vantage Pro 2 and replaced it with an Ecowitt station. It's priced well below the Davis stuff. It has full internet connectivity and can feed data to the popular weather sites. The outdoor unit includes a solar sensor and the console has an attractive color display. He's had it running for about a week and has been impressed with it so far.

 

Dispatcher308

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Another group that you can try for rain gauge, snow or hail is CoCoRaHS (Community Collabrative Rain, Hail and Snow network) CoCoRaHS.org, this is Citizen Science group and the NWS uses the reports in their daily data.

What is CoCoRaHS?
CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications. We are now in all fifty states.

Download the updated "CoCoRaHS Brochure" as a PDF (12.4 MB)
CoCoRaHS Wanted Flyer PDF (164 KB)
Where did the CoCoRaHS Network originate?
The network originated with the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University in 1998 thanks in part to the Fort Collins flood a year prior. In the years since, CoCoRaHS now includes thousands of volunteers in the Northern Hemisphere. Click here for a look at the order of states/countries that have joined the network.
Who can participate?
This is a community project. Everyone can help, young, old, and in-between. The only requirements are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can affect and impact our lives.
What will our volunteer observers be doing?
Each time a rain, hail or snow storm crosses your area, volunteers take measurements of precipitation from as many locations as possible (see equipment). These precipitation reports are then recorded on our Web site www.cocorahs.org. The data are then displayed and organized for many of our end users to analyze and apply to daily situations ranging from water resource analysis and severe storm warnings to neighbors comparing how much rain fell in their backyards.
Who uses CoCoRaHS?
CoCoRaHS is used by a wide variety of organizations and individuals. The National Weather Service, other meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor & recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community are just some examples of those who visit our Web site and use our data.
What do we hope to accomplish?
CoCoRaHS has several goals (as stated in our mission statement). 1) provide accurate high-quality precipitation data for our many end users on a timely basis; 2) increasing the density of precipitation data available throughout the country by encouraging volunteer weather observing; 3) encouraging citizens to have fun participating in meteorological science and heightening their awareness about weather; 4) providing enrichment activities in water and weather resources for teachers, educators and the community at large to name a few.
Who is sponsoring this network?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are major sponsors of CoCoRaHS. Other organizations have contributed either financially, and/or with supplies and equipment. Our list of sponsors continues to grow. Click here to visit our sponsor’s page. Many other organizations and individuals have pitched in time and resources to help keep the network up and running. We are grateful to all of you, as CoCoRaHS would not be possible without your help.
What benefits are there in volunteering?
One of the neat things about participating in this network is coming away with the feeling that you have made an important contribution that helps others. By providing your daily observation, you help to fill in a piece of the weather puzzle that affects many across your area in one way or another. You also will have the chance to make some new friends as you do something important and learn some new things along the way. In some areas, activities are organized for network participants including training sessions, field trips, special speakers, picnics, pot-luck dinners, and photography contests just to name a few.
How can I sign up?
Just click here to sign up as a CoCoRaHS Volunteer Observer or download a .pdf version of our application and return it as soon as possible.
 
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Jay911

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Just wanted to provide a bit of an update on my WeatherFlow station...

Just before Christmas, I got a notification that the Sky device (the part mounted high on my roof, measuring rain and wind) was offline due to battery failure. Odd, because it has the optional Solar Power Array, which replaces the 8 AA lithiums with a solar cell. I figured perhaps the solar cell got covered in snow - we had a good storm on the 21st - and waited a day or two for it to recover, but it didn't.

Had a colleague fly his drone up to where we could see the device and the solar panel was clean and looked fine. So we put one of our guys up on the roof (it's a fire station) and had them pull the solar array off, put in the AA batteries, and get the thing up and running.

I later found quite a few people on the WeatherFlow forums who were having the same problems as me around the same time mine started. We compared notes and found that everyone registered a precipitous drop in voltage from the SPA around roughly the same date - particularly interesting with one of the people being fairly geographically close to me (<10 miles).

As it turns out, this is apparently designed behavior for this solar panel. In order to protect the internal battery from damage, it will shut down the charging circuits when the ambient temperature is below freezing (0°C). Well, it's December in Alberta. It got below zero pretty promptly and we probably won't see sustained above-freezing temps until April.

So it looks like we're going to have to run batteries in the Sky device in the winter months, unless these guys can figure out a way to safely charge the internal battery in the SPA in cold temps. Not many people are pleased by this, especially since there was no indication in the manual or the online specifications that this would happen.
 

JoshuaHufford

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Just wanted to provide a bit of an update on my WeatherFlow station...

Just before Christmas, I got a notification that the Sky device (the part mounted high on my roof, measuring rain and wind) was offline due to battery failure. Odd, because it has the optional Solar Power Array, which replaces the 8 AA lithiums with a solar cell. I figured perhaps the solar cell got covered in snow - we had a good storm on the 21st - and waited a day or two for it to recover, but it didn't.

Had a colleague fly his drone up to where we could see the device and the solar panel was clean and looked fine. So we put one of our guys up on the roof (it's a fire station) and had them pull the solar array off, put in the AA batteries, and get the thing up and running.

I later found quite a few people on the WeatherFlow forums who were having the same problems as me around the same time mine started. We compared notes and found that everyone registered a precipitous drop in voltage from the SPA around roughly the same date - particularly interesting with one of the people being fairly geographically close to me (<10 miles).

As it turns out, this is apparently designed behavior for this solar panel. In order to protect the internal battery from damage, it will shut down the charging circuits when the ambient temperature is below freezing (0°C). Well, it's December in Alberta. It got below zero pretty promptly and we probably won't see sustained above-freezing temps until April.

So it looks like we're going to have to run batteries in the Sky device in the winter months, unless these guys can figure out a way to safely charge the internal battery in the SPA in cold temps. Not many people are pleased by this, especially since there was no indication in the manual or the online specifications that this would happen.


Wow, that is a terrible design flaw for something that is designed to be out in the elements!
 

Sting11

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I can't recommend the Davis Vantage Pro 2 strongly enough. I've had one at my place since the summer of 2007. A few years ago my humidity sensor went bad, and I decided to replace the entire outdoor unit due to its age although replacement parts are available for just about anything that might fail. I also had to replace the solar power unit. But for over 12 years it's been a very reliable product given the punishment it takes outdoors.
 

a417

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Just wanted to provide a bit of an update on my WeatherFlow station...

[snip]

So it looks like we're going to have to run batteries in the Sky device in the winter months, unless these guys can figure out a way to safely charge the internal battery in the SPA in cold temps. Not many people are pleased by this, especially since there was no indication in the manual or the online specifications that this would happen.

Time for a battery eliminator. Give up on the solar aspects of it, lose the battery, and put a stable power supply to it and be done. It stinks that this 'feature' is biting you in the ass like this, but I'd say its time for a 'local redesign'. Yeah you will have to tie up a local electrical outlet and run some UV protected wiring up to it, but it beats having to do multi-annual trips to the roof to exchange batteries and such.
 
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