Personal Weather Station

This is what I have. Doesn't log or connect Internet. Shows min/max temp and humidity each day. Both indoor and out.

Does not log rain, but I had one that had rain gauge. But useless in winter.

Has display that visually shows, sun, cloud, rain, snow, lightning.

Averages local barometric pressure and determines weather such as rain, snow, lightning, sunny, etc based on average. Needs about 4-6 weeks to become quite accurate.

$130 Canadian list, but often on sale $50.

As accurate as I need. Trick is to find location for remote temperature/ humidity that remains shaded all day, but still gets decent air flow.

I've been a weather geek virtually all my life. I'm a registered weather spotter for the local branch of the National Weather Service and have been reporting for them for over 15 years.

I'm not familiar with the Ambient products although I know they have a pretty good reputation. My neighbor uses a Lacrosse station and he is quite happy with it.

In my case, I'm serious enough about the weather to justify spending some money. I've been using Davis Instruments equipment for 25 years now. The Vantage Pro2 is the station I'm currently using.

http://www.davis.com/Product/Davis_Instruments_6162_Vantage_...

Davis also makes less expensive models to suit a variety of weather enthusiasts.

http://www.davis.com/Category/Weather_Instruments/51585?refe...

In any case, I find it to be a great hobby and provide a useful service at the same time.

Good luck with whatever equipment you choose.

Those Davis units look nice but are a lot more than I want to pay for a home weather station.

You can do ewer weather the same way my system works..

Go outside - get wet.. Look around for some kind of water leak.. If you don't find one it's likely raining!

Go outside - can't see your hand.. Try opening your eyes.. If that doesn't work turn on some lights .. Still can't see your hand.. It's likely fog

Go outside - hat blows off - look around for a fan.. Not finding on.. Presume it's windy outside!

Go outside - its light - yet turning off light. If no swich, presume its sunny!

Cheap, simple, effective!

We opted for the cheaper station first. It was OK but didn't last long and not a lot of information .
We now have the Davis unit. We love it. It is more dependable and we'll worth the extra cost.
It is wifi to the indoor unit and this gives some data but after we hooked the indoor unit to a small netbook computer we were amazed at how much more data there is that can not be seen on the indoor unit by itself.

Mary,do you know what model of Davis unit you have?

How many of you are licensed amateur radio operators and members of your local skywarn?

Tx., Ny., Md., & Nc.

Not much call for it in several parts of the continent.

n' yeah, fer the record..

I'm radio active n' glow in the dark!

Well, I'm on my 2nd Oregon Scientific and I will not buy another.

The first was a WMR918 - wireless, solar with batteries. Not a bad unit. Wind, Temp (3 [or 4] units), Humidity and Barometric Pressure

A squirrel managed to pull the debris screen out of the Rain Gauge and chew at the hole that directed the water to the measuring device. Called support and was told that the device was no longer sold and it was not supported and no parts were available. (2 small screws attached it to the base). Then the temp/humidity sending unit failed and even replacing the NiCad battery as well as the AA batteries did no good. Support gave same song and dance about no support. Of course, they were more than happy to sell me a new weather station.

So the wife got me a new W/S for Christmas (2015). First thing I noticed was that the Rain Gauge had the EXACT SAME TOP as the old one had. So that part was available. They either lied or did not know.

The new base unit randomly adds rainfall to the "Total" amount of rain. Right now it says that we have had 69.81 inches of rain since I did a Reset Jan 24 this year. Yet the local weather data site says we have had 3.73 inches since Jan 1. I do not live in Hawaii where the rainfall could be that high on certain islands on the windward (Northern) side. BTW, it did read 0.0 after the Reset and it randomly added rainfall before the reset as well.

The PC software is not that bad, but it only displays 40 hours in the history charts and has no way to display previous history or access it with the "Free" software.

I reset the unit because it was only displaying the past 8 hours in the 40 hour chart. It had been displaying 32 to 36 hrs. worth, as it is now (apparently normal operation). It was also losing the remote temp gauge signals intermittently.

Oh yeah, it has not been able to receive a signal from WWV to set the time/date accurately - it is still on EST and has lost about 1 min since reset. It may work in another location though.

Once it starts to fail, it will be replaced with another brand.

I'm licensed, but not very active.

I have one of those. It works ok. Gets tiring after a while...lol

I have also thought of getting one of those myself, but other than the novelty of it, wasn't sure I wanted to spend the bucks.

As others have said on here, I also did a lot of research and it seems the Davis models have the most features, provide the most data, and also allow you to monitor it remotely.

If all you want is to see weather data closer to you, I would look at Weather Underground. Most of the people who hav ethe Davis system (and others) are connected to the internet and provide their data online. Just open the web page and search in your local area.

I found a neighbor who had one less than half a mile away, so it gives me all the informaiton I need, without any cost to me...

I have had a sequence of three remote reporting rain gauges over the last 20 years. Even though my reporting location is less than 40 feet through one wall from the place I hang the receiver, the first two had intermittent trouble being received. The current one is a Rainwise model, and has been satisfactory in that respect, although it eats batteries and has some other problems.

About five years ago I bought a Davis Vantage Pro2, and began reporting my data so others could see it. As I have for most of that time, I currently report to wunderground, and I also currently create my own website using the Cumulus software from Sandaysoft.

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashbo...
http://pastoll.info/weather/index.htm
https://www.wunderground.com/data/wximagenew/a/archae86/11.j...

The Davis reports to my receiver over a much longer distance and through several walls, but has had far more reliable communication than my older rain gauges. My biggest reception problem was at startup, as my Davis receiver was picking up signals from a neighbor transmitter the better part of a thousand feet away, and I did not realize I needed to switch to a non-default channel for a day or two.

My installation is badly in the wind shadow of my home--the issue is neighbor trouble.

I have had two weather centers, one was a a Lacrosse and the one from Acu-Rite. The Lacrosse lasted quite a few years but had to replace the wire and the censer, The Acu-Rite model 01500/01515 is almost three years now and still has the same backup batteries. It has a solar panel that powers the weather station outside. It has to many features to list. Price can be from 99.00 and up. There are features you can get so it will connect to your computer. and wifi. www.AcuRite.com They can also be bought in Walmarts, Home depot.

Very interesting topic, especially as I need to replace my BSA weather rock. Shipping is rather expensive.

Thanks!

getting involved in APRS, for information some hams have their weather stations on APrs

Nice to be able to see current weather conditions. Also has history graph for last 25 hours and 25 days. For dry southern California, in my area, we had record rain in one day of over 3.3 inch. That would be an average for whole month of January.

I have a Davis Vantage Vue. Had it for about 10 years, and it is connected to the internet and posts to Weather Underground. I enjoy it a lot as I am far enough away for an official or even another personal station, that I like seeing my weather.

Also, when I travel, I can see my actual weather including rainfall. I download the temperature data and correlate it with my home's energy usage (have heatpumps) and created a beautiful parabolic curve relating average degree days with daily kwH used. Helpful for seeing when my heatpump might be going bad as the energy usage will move outside the prediction consistently. Also, I have propane for hot water, and I can use weather data to calculate how my propane usage varies with temperature.

Then there is the basic weather data to know the dew point and wind data which is useful when working outside.

Check Acu-Right. It has an outside weather guage that checks rain, wind speed and direction as well as humidity and temp.

I like my BloomSky.
https://map.bloomsky.com/weather-stations/gqBxp6apnJSnoain

It is a Davis Vantage Vue. It is so much better that the La Crosse we had before it. The Davis Vantage Vue keeps the data link outside to inside a lot better.

If you can be sure and link it to a Laptop or pc. We have a designated Netbook wired to it and you get more information than just on the unit by itself. You can link to NOAA but we never have looked into how.

You can connect it to the internet but we have the program and it is just linked to our Netbook.

Thanks everyone for all the comments, and please keep them coming. So far in the research I have done it seems the Davis Vantage Vue or Vantage Pro2 are the premier hobbyist weather stations. The main disadvantage I see with them is the higher cost. The base cost of the Davis product is comparable to other brands, but by the time you do add-ons for software, internet connectivity, etc you can easily get up into the $500 to $1000 range which is more than I want to spend.

The thing that appeals to me about the Ambient WS1001 product is that everything is included in the package and it is in the $300 price range. I have however read some conflicting reviews about quality, durability and reliability of that brand, so I am still trying to sort that out.

I see that Acurite announced some new products at CES in January that are supposed to be available in the second quarter. The Acurite Atlas Elite looks interesting to me. The pricing isn't available yet, so I think I will wait to see how that shakes out and what the early reviews say before I decide what to get.

So for now I will continue to research. I found the WXforum.net weather forum which seems to be the go-to forum for weather stations, just like POI Factory is for GPS. So I am just starting to dig through all the information available there.

You can get one almost anywhere. And they are very simple to use.

Was formerly the ARES Emergency Coordinator, RACES Radio Officer and Skywarn involved for Brooklyn, NY prior to buying a house in Nassau County. I didn't get involved in the services after I moved but was deployed with my licensed wife the weekend following 9/11 t set up communications across the street from where the towers stood.
I have full HF, UHF, VHF in my daily vehicle and have an antenna and roof tower for the house I haven't set up.
I am on the local UHF repeater all of the time and have been playing with DMR for almost 2 years.

My call, as you probably could tell, is KB2PSM.

Rob

And made in the pre-historic USA!

The weather rock or weather stone is a humor display that pokes fun at the intricate technology used in modern weather forecasts, as well as the fact that their accuracy is less than perfect. A rock is typically hung from a tripod and accompanied by a sign indicating how to read it. And your right...made in the USA. Official Boy Scout tool. lol

Someone in our neighborhood has one that I found by using the WunderStation app on my iPad. It satisfies a curiosity as to the local weather at home when we're away and it logs things such as rainfall and temperatures over time. I'll try to find out who has it and what the brand/model is as it seems to have been reliable for a couple of years that I've been aware of its existence.

You can see what equipment they have when you look at the station on Weather Underground. There is a link at the top that reads "About this PWS". The popup will show the equipment being used.

From my years of experience with these amateur weather stations, I recommend you give some thought to the following when shopping out a system.

Battery backup is a must if you are recording historical weather data.

The station should have the ability to store its own data and not require a connection to a booted PC.

An Internet interface is a great feature which allows others, including yourself and perhaps the National Weather Service, to monitor current weather conditions at home. I find it handy to be able to check the indoor temp when I'm travelling during the winter.

Programmable alarms. I have remote sensors located in areas sensitive to low temps like pipes in crawl spaces, greenhouses etc.

I strongly recommend a wireless station with no direct connection to indoor electronics. I've lost 2 PC's and a couple of data storage units over the years to power surges caused by lightning.

When shopping for a wireless station, consider those with enough range to cover the sensor locations you want to use. Often is is best to monitor temps close to the ground while an anemometer and wind vane should be mounted as high as possible. Finding a location for an "all in one" sensor array is often difficult for accurate readings. I monitor the temp in an out building a half mile away using the repeater option on my Davis station.

Wireless systems that allow multiple console locations are very handy. I have them in the den, the bedroom and another in the family room.

You can save some money by buying a basic station that is expandable to fit future needs. I added the solar and UV sensors as well as extra consoles to my Davis Vantage Pro 2 a couple of years afterward and saved over $500 on my initial purchase.

Keep in mind some solar powered wireless sensors still have battery backup. It may not be convenient to have to get up on the roof during the winter to replace a battery.

While most quality stations have the majority of these features, it still pays to check before buying.

Have a good idea what you want to monitor and where you can put your sensors. Then choose a product that fits your needs and budget.

Great information bdhsfz6. Thanks for taking the time to share your expertise and advice. It is very much appreciated. I wish I could get a Vantage Pro 2, but it is beyond my budget. From what I can figure out, by the time you get all the sensors, bridge, software, etc. you can soon be up to $1000 or more which is more than I can justify. On the other hand, I don't just want to buy $200 or $300 worth of junk that will only last a year or two.

I will continue to research, read reviews and other info and take my time. In the end, I may decide to stay away from the weather station hobby and just get my weather info from nearby stations on WU. There are several within a few miles of me. It is interesting to see the variation between sites that are close to each other. It is obvious that some folks do a better job than others of maintaining and calibrating their stations.

Based on alandb's tip, my neighbor has a Davis Vantage View

Same here. By using WunderStation, I was able to satisfy my itch of getting a PWS by just using the information from my neighbors. I set up his PWS as my favorite. Saved me a bundle of money and time.

The weather rock is very accurate.....for the time you are viewing it.
If its wet...its raining.
If its moving...its windy.
If its dry...its sunny out.

I am going to revive this old thread that I started almost 4 1/2 years ago rather than start a new one. Back in 2017, I was very enthused to buy a personal weather station, but decided to wait because Accu-Rite had just announced a new model called the Elite which was supposed to compete in quality and features with the premium Davis brand Vantage Pro 2. So I decided to wait until that was released and a few reviews came out before deciding what to get.

Well 4 years plus later, Accu-Rite still hasn't delivered the Elite, and while the Davis products are still considered to be the premium, longest lasting and most reliable devices, they haven't updated the design in many years (which IMO is klutzy at best, overly complex in setup, over priced, and badly dated in esthetics).

So I decided to go with the AmbientWeather brand. I got the WS-2000 model which is their current premium model that still uses a conventional integrated sensor array with spinning wind cups and wind vane. In addition to temp, humidity and wind, the outdoor sensor measures rainfall, solar radiation and UV index. It is powered by a solar panel/capacitor with 2 AA lithium batteries for backup for night/overcast conditions. They claim the batteries only need to be replaced every 3 years.

It has a beautiful 7" color console that doubles as the receiver from the indoor and outdoor sensors and also provides the WiFi connection for publishing your weather data on the Internet. The indoor sensor is separate from the console and provides barometric pressure and indoor temp/humidity. You can add up to 8 additional sensors including additional temp/humidity sensors, a lightning detector and a couple of other types of sensors. I purchased a couple of additional temp/humidity sensors so I can monitor both floors of my home and also have an additional outdoor sensor in a nice shady spot on the other side of my yard.

The setup was super easy. Everything linked up and started working within minutes after I had it mounted and turned on. The outdoor sensor array is about 100' from my house and I had no problem picking up a strong wireless signal. I have temporarily mounted the outdoor sensor on my fence only 6' above ground so I can make easy adjustments while I am still tinkering with calibrations, fine tuning the north orientation, etc. Once I am convinced everything is working as it should, I will move it up on a post that will put it between 9' and 10' off the ground and that should give more accurate wind readings as well as help mitigate some temperature spikes from heat radiating off my fence when the sun is beating on the fence early morning and late afternoon.

So far I am only publishing my weather data on the AmbientWeather.net site. I can also publish on Weather Underground but haven't decided if I will. The Ambient site is publicly available and shows everything I want to look at. Lots of people publishing on Weather Underground have been very frustrated with its reliability the past couple of years, so I am not sure I want to go through that hassle.

If anyone would like to look at my weather data on the Ambient site, just send me a PM and I will send the link.

I've just spent a little time reading https://ambientweather.com/support/ws-2000-weather-station-s... and I am interested. I am looking forward to your experience.

One requirement that I would have is using ham radio APRS. I found instructions to do that via the internet but I would rather do it via radio.

Well, I am into the second week of using my weather station and I like it better all the time. I did move it up on an 8' post attached to the fence rails which puts it about 9.5' above the ground and a good 3.5' over the top of the fence. That extra height did mitigate the radiant heat spike I was getting when the sun was beating on the surface of the fence. I suspect there will still be a small spike when there is no wind, but so far the readings have been spot on since I moved it up. I have various analog and digital devices to test and compare the temp, humidity, barometer and rainfall. So far I am very impressed with the accuracy of the Ambient sensors. I used two different digital compasses on my handheld GPS devices to assist in getting a good North/South orientation for accurate wind direction, but that still involves a bit of manual line of site spotting and a measure of guesswork. Overall I am happy with the results I am getting.

I did decide to upload to both the AmbientWeather site and Weather Underground. No problems so far with either service. My nearby neighbors were pleased to know that they can pull up our neighborhood weather conditions on their phones and computers.

I have ordered the lightning sensor from Ambient so it will be interesting to see how that works the next time a thunderstorm moves through. I also ordered an extra temp/humidity sensor so I can monitor the conditions in my garage (which is heated in the winter).

One weak spot in the Ambient WS-2000 model is that the console/receiver doesn't have a battery backup. If you lose power, the sensors keep sending data, but there is nothing to receive it so the information is lost. I don't really want to put a bulky UPS system where I have the console located, so I have ordered some cables and a portable power bank from Amazon to see if I can rig up a battery backup for the console. That will be kind of fun to tinker with. The console runs on 5V DC and pulls < 1A so its power requirements are similar to a cell phone or GPS device. Hopefully I can make the power bank work as a "mini UPS".

I have had a Davis Vantage Vue for over 10 years. Even have moved houses with it. Great device, reliable, have it connected to the internet to post weather data. There customer service is fantastic. Eight year old unit stopped reporting wind data. Called them and they sent me for free, a replacement wind sensor and instructions to replace it.

This topic is making me think of getting a good one. But the recent reviews of Davis in Amazon are not flattering.

My sentiments exactly.

I'm not sure which Davis weather station you're looking at. They make quite a few.

I've been using a Davis Vantage Pro2 wireless station for over 25 years (Amazon 4.5 star rating):

https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Instruments-6153-Aspirated-Radi...

Over that time, the only repairs needed were the aspiration fan and the rain gauge sensor. Total repair cost $115.

Yes, the quality Davis equipment is quite expensive but I've had a lifelong interest in the weather and, to me anyway, it's worth the cost.

I have a La Crosse now for three and a half years with not problems at all Have also had Acu-Rite for about seven years before that with only minor problem. To me it depends on have deep your into it.

I have had my Ambient Weather WS-2000 unit for a month now and so far I am very pleased with it. It is easy to set up and get connected via wi-fi to Weather UnderGround and the Ambient online service. I have been very impressed with the accuracy of the sensors. One of my neighbors has told me that he appreciates having the online access to our back-yard weather conditions.

The WS-2000 console is very attractive and shows all the relevant data on the main screen. You can access other screens for configuration, historical and detail data. I have added the lightening sensor and additional temp/humidity sensors for my basement and garage.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/400_k...

I have had my WS-2000 Personal Weather Station for almost 5 months now and so far it has worked beautifully. I have not had a single glitch or outage with it. It has only been shut down and taken off line once while installing a firmware update. I have had no problems or outages with the online publishing to either ambientweather.net or to Weather Underground.

I did do a little prep for winter to the outdoor sensor array. I sprayed the top surface with DuPont teflon spray which is supposed to help prevent snow and ice from piling up on it. It has a solar panel to charge the capacitor that powers it and a UV/solar radiation sensor that need to be kept clear so the full sunlight can reach it. We have only had one snowstorm this winter (on New Years Day) and the snow didn't stick so I didn't have to climb up on a ladder to sweep it off. I don't know if the teflon spray helped or if the windy conditions kept it clear but I was glad I didn't have to clean it off in the sub-zero temps. The other prep I did for winter was to cover the rain gauge funnel so the snow and ice would not get into the tipping spoon mechanism that measures rainfall. Ambient says this is not necessary, but it seemed like a good idea so I did it anyway.

If anyone is interested in getting a reliable and accurate personal weather station that is relatively inexpensive (compared to the premium Davis models) I would highly recommend looking at the Ambient Weather Ws-2000.

I am, here in San Diego. No PWS though, HOA won't allow it, typical CA over-regulation. No room or optimal location for it in my condo complex anyway. I do have a remote outside temp sensor which displays on an inside unit. But, I have a great panoramic view looking out to the hills just east of my QTH, which is where any of the more serious local weather conditions (CB) usually develop.

I'm in northeast PA and have been a Skywarn spotter for the NWS in Binghamton NY for almost 30 years.

I took over my father's old 5 character call sign but haven't been on the air in many years. I still have his collection of old QSL cards around here somewhere.

The NWS has encouraged me to join the amateur radio program but I haven't yet since there are several other operating members in my area.

In 1979, I purposely built my house on a mountain top in the Pocono's with the idea of getting back into ham. I actually have line of sight with the NWS K1NRA repeater on Salem Mountain in Carbondale.

My big problem is lightning. We are very prone to strikes here and effective lightning suppression for a decent ham antenna is complicated and expensive. I realize I wouldn't need much of an antenna to hit the Salem repeater but it wouldn't be of much other use.

Who knows, I may decide to get back into ham in the future.

I have a Davis and customarily just leave it as-is for the winter. Here in New Mexico, generally there is enough sun and higher temperature to melt snow so it gets registered by the rain gauge within a couple of days of falling. So my "rain" is logged later, but often is pretty close to right. Far really heavy snow, especially with wind, the snow that stacks up on the device waiting to melt is not a perfect sample, so sometimes I get undercount, but mostly it is pretty close.

Here in Iowa, we can go weeks without a thaw, so attempting to use the rain gauge to measure snow moisture is pretty impossible unless you have some kind of heater in the rain funnel and tipping spoon mechanism. Getting the power out to the sensor array and having the control electronics to run a heater in the rain funnel just isn't worth the effort for me and even with that mod, the accuracy of the measured amounts would be questionable. So covering the funnel to keep the ice out seemed like a good idea to me. When we start getting some consistent thaws (probably early March), I will remove the cover and let the rain gauge do its thing.