Personal Weather Station

I hear that when the sky gets kind of dark and the winds kick up, the heavy stuff is about a minute away. But don't hold me to that.

 

I've on my second AcuRite (upgraded to the color display that can store weather data on your computer and stream it to an app when you're away from home) and it works brilliantly.

I've never had any trouble with my station connecting to the display. There is a way to reset the frequency in both the display and the station. Also, make sure you've got a clean line of sight between where you have the transmitter and the display. Even tree limbs and leaves can potentially block the signal. Also, make sure your display is mounted near or on a wall that faces outside. Putting it near a window helps with wifi signal as well.

We've got our transmitter mounted on our fence and it works just fine. I often tweet images from my station's display and the NWS office and some of the local TV stations have shared my data, especially when we got 7 inches of rain in less than an hour one awful night. I've also recorded a 70 mph wind gust on the station and I'm still wondering how it wasn't ripped away.

You'll need to change the batteries and clean it out yearly (spiders and other creepy-crawlies like to live in the station itself, especially in the rain gauge part). Top tip: Use a little bit of light insecticide and you'll have far fewer spiders to deal with come next year.

If you can get it working, it's a very interesting hobby keeping up with the weather. I've always been fascinated with it since I rode out a hurricane with my family when I was 4 years old.

 

That's a little more advanced than the Radio Shack version I had when I was 10.

 

It's a lot of fun to use. The only downside is you have keep your computer on if you want to check the weather at your house on your app.