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Weather Station Sensor Installation

Drscottsmith

Drscottsmith

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2019
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Location
Duncan SC
All -

I finally have a basic weather station so I can contribute to observation threads. Is there a recommendation amongst board users as to the best location for the outdoor sensor to provide any kind of consistency in reporting?

Thanks -

-Scott
 
Drscottsmith said:
All -

I finally have a basic weather station so I can contribute to observation threads. Is there a recommendation amongst board users as to the best location for the outdoor sensor to provide any kind of consistency in reporting?

Thanks -

-Scott
Click to expand...

It depends on what type of station it is, if temp sensor is separate from the wind, etc. Standard protocol for wind is to mount it at 10M but a lot of people will Mount them 5-6 feet off the ground, especially if the temp sensor is integrated with it. Generally though you want your wind sensor in the most open area where it can pick up wind from any direction and the temp sensor in an open area as well 5-6 feet off the ground. It will need some sort of radiation shield if it doesn’t have one to prevent the sun from affecting the temps.
 
Drscottsmith said:
All -

I finally have a basic weather station so I can contribute to observation threads. Is there a recommendation amongst board users as to the best location for the outdoor sensor to provide any kind of consistency in reporting?

Thanks -

-Scott
Click to expand...
I installed an Ambient right after Christmas at 6-7 ft. in a somewhat open area. It seems to be spot on with everything except the wind, and the manual explains that this could be a challenge to dial in. I may try raising it up and see what happens. Its off on the low side by at least 25% just by visual obs.
 
JJr said:
I installed an Ambient right after Christmas at 6-7 ft. in a somewhat open area. It seems to be spot on with everything except the wind, and the manual explains that this could be a challenge to dial in. I may try raising it up and see what happens. Its off on the low side by at least 25% just by visual obs.
Click to expand...

Wind is always the hardest part since NWS mounts those 10 meters up and they're usually in an area that is pretty wide open. If you have trees near your house that will slow the winds down plus 5-7 feet off the ground winds will be lower than what they are 30 feet up. I have my station mounted 5 feet off the ground for temps and because I want to know what the wind is at ground level vs 30 feet up.
 
Drscottsmith said:
All -

I finally have a basic weather station so I can contribute to observation threads. Is there a recommendation amongst board users as to the best location for the outdoor sensor to provide any kind of consistency in reporting?

Thanks -

-Scott
Click to expand...




I have an Ambient WS2000 series (All in One). I didn't want to put it up 10 meters and sacrifice temp obs and I didn't want 6 feet to sacrifice wind obs. I decided on 5 meters (chimney mount) and I calibrated the wind speed on my system using a linear/roughness scale based on the terrain where I live and the fact I'm not at 10 meters. I used My closest NWS (KTCL) site to calibrate my temp sensor since I was at 5 meters instead of 2 and also a slight ambient heat effect being mounted above a building. One final calibration was relative pressure, since I am 288 ft above sea level, my pressure had to be calibrated to what it would be at sea level. Again, I used my closest NWS site to monitor this since it updates every hour at about 51 min past the hour.

If you have a stand-alone temp sensor, just find a north facing non metal object in the shade, preferably away from your house, mount at ~ 6ft.

Hope this helps.
 
I'm upgrading to the Weatherpro Tempest weather station when it comes in today. The one I have now is okay, but the sun definitely affects it, and I feel like the humidity reading is a little high, affecting the overnight low readings. Anyone else have a Tempest?

 
J.C. said:
I'm upgrading to the Weatherpro Tempest weather station when it comes in today. The one I have now is okay, but the sun definitely affects it, and I feel like the humidity reading is a little high, affecting the overnight low readings. Anyone else have a Tempest?
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I‘ve had a Tempest for nearly a year now. Fantastic station. Great app, too. I have it mounted away from the house on a pagoda. It’s about 12 feet above the ground. I bought a 1” dow rod, painted it match the pagoda, and mounted it on one of the 6” by 6” posts. Very sturdy.
 
J.C. said:
I'm upgrading to the Weatherpro Tempest weather station when it comes in today. The one I have now is okay, but the sun definitely affects it, and I feel like the humidity reading is a little high, affecting the overnight low readings. Anyone else have a Tempest?

Click to expand...

I have one it's a great station. It frustrated me to no end at first when it was learning and the rain total would change. Now it's pretty close to my old Davis station
 
J.C. said:
I'm upgrading to the Weatherpro Tempest weather station when it comes in today. The one I have now is okay, but the sun definitely affects it, and I feel like the humidity reading is a little high, affecting the overnight low readings. Anyone else have a Tempest?

Click to expand...

Yeah just got mine back in September and absolutely no regrets. It does tend to have higher DPs than all other stations around me and I'm not sure what that is all about, have it about 8' off the ground and temps fairly spot on, especially day time highs. My old all-in-one unit was horrific with day time temps, sun definitely affected it.
 
J.C. said:
I'm upgrading to the Weatherpro Tempest weather station when it comes in today. The one I have now is okay, but the sun definitely affects it, and I feel like the humidity reading is a little high, affecting the overnight low readings. Anyone else have a Tempest?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I have one too. I have it attached to a pole off of the top of my roof. Great station but the rainfall can be a little off.
 
Ward Cleaver said:
I turned off the Rain Check feature. I’m more interested in rain totals IMBY than overall community totals.
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Btw, I was just at a location getting oil changed in my vehicle, they play some classic tv show station and just saw you on TV ? ?
 
SD said:
You can do that?
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Sure can.

metwannabe said:
Right?! I was just looking into that as well, it was on on my device, I just turned it off. I'm only concerned with accurate rainfall data imby as well. By doing so my monthly rain total just changed from .63 to .72, color me confused

This explains it, man thanks @Ward Cleaver

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Glad I could help. Rain Check might make sense for some people, but I like to compare my Tempest totals with my analog gauge.
 
metwannabe said:
Yeah just got mine back in September and absolutely no regrets. It does tend to have higher DPs than all other stations around me and I'm not sure what that is all about, have it about 8' off the ground and temps fairly spot on, especially day time highs. My old all-in-one unit was horrific with day time temps, sun definitely affected it.
Click to expand...

I contacted their tech support just before ordering one and specifically asked them this question. You can look at weather underground and see whose stations are affected by direct sunlight, it can be pretty egregious. I have my accurite mounted 6 feet in the shade in the summer, but would have to move it somewhere along the northside of my house in the winter months, otherwise it would be off by as much as 1 to 5 degrees. What their tech support told me is it takes the amount of UV along with other stations in the area to adjust the temperature to keep it accurate. I just love how there are no moving parts.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, much appreciated!
 
I also just learned I can keep the data as a running notification on my phone. Now if they would just make a home screen widget
 
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