Just Flight & Just Trains blogs

Right - not what you think! I am talking about Personal Weather Stations (PWS). I have just commissioned (rather a grand word in this case!) my own PWS in my back garden. OK all sounds a bit geeky but I have always been interested in the weather and my young Son and Daughter are as well so I have installed it so that they can learn a bit more about it.

As normal this is a worldwide hobby and there is software, hardware and forums like Midlands Weather all over the place to find out more. The unit that I have installed is at the ‘cheap-er’ end of the scale in which you can easily spend many, many hundreds/thousands of pounds, but it is what I would call a reasonably featured entry level station that measures wind speed and direction, air pressure, inside/outside temperature, rain fall (precipitation!) and other parameters.

Now the fun thing is that the data display that is in the house (connected to the outside sensors by wireless link - no wires - excellent!) has a USB output and can upload the data to a PC, this in turn can be uploaded to your own website or the data displayed on weather reporting websites, like Wunderground and PWS Weather as many thousands of people do already around the World, you can even add a web-cam to the reports if you want. At the moment the sensors are mounted on my kids playhouse roof, but this is not ideal and if I have a chance and a long enough ladder I will move it up the to the roof of the house where it will have a clearer view of the conditions and less disturbance for the wind speed and direction caused by its current position.

If you want to read the weather conditions in my back garden have a look here:

(Metric readings)

Wunderground site

or here:

(Imperial/US readings)

PWS site

The outside sensors (old initial position):

The inside display:

The Computer display:

UPDATE!

I took the plunge (not literally thankfully) and moved the sensors to the corner of the gable of my house’s roof with the kind assistance (holding the ladder) of my Father in-outlaw). Now hopefully as the sensors in a much raised position the readings, especially the wind direction and speed will be a lot more accurate as they are above a lot of the bushes, fences, sheds and so on that cause problems at a lower elevation. Here is a pic of the sensors in thier new location:

The outside sensors (new position):

‘til the next time.

Keep safe.

Scotty