Why invest in a weather station?

Why is your own weather station with an outdoor sensor a good investment?

Probably nobody likes to leave the house dressed too lightly, only to freeze in a penetrating wind or get wet in the rain. In theory, all you need to know is the weather forecast, but as it turns out in practice, an online weather forecast or an application installed on a smartphone can very often give misleading messages. Problems with the accuracy of commercial forecasts are usually due to poor sensor location or over-optimistic interpretation of results. The problem is also compounded by the high level of human interference in the environment – we are experiencing weather anomalies more and more frequently.

Therefore, currently more and more people decide to build their own miniature “meteorological institute”, the heart of which is a weather station with external sensors. Such a solution has many advantages – the weather forecast given by the device is always calculated on the basis of locally acquired data, which allow to precisely predict any meteorological changes. The information provided by the weather station with an external sensor is also constantly updated, thanks to which the person using it may be appropriately prepared even for a sudden breakdown in the weather and appropriately adjust their clothing to the approaching conditions.

A good weather station, on the other hand, will be able to keep the building at a positive temperature, protecting it from any damage caused by the winter cold. What’s more, many devices also allow for completely remote control, so that even when you’re on a family holiday, you can constantly monitor and manage your home heating system.

Which sensors should I choose for my weather station?

Weather is a phenomenon that is influenced by many factors such as temperature, humidity, cloud cover, sunshine, wind speed and even its direction. For a weather station to fulfil its function sufficiently, temperature and humidity sensors are an absolute minimum, which at least makes it possible to determine what to wear when leaving the house. As more and more weather sensors are used, we get more useful information that we can use in practice. Based on this, an already advanced weather system would be able to predict the outside conditions for the next few hours after applying an appropriate algorithm.

How reliable the forecast given by the weather station will be depends mainly on the quality of sensors paired with it, therefore – if we want to achieve a high degree of accuracy, which would be characterised by a weather station – it is worth betting on good class sensors. Generally the best idea is to purchase a sensor recommended by the manufacturer of a given device, but sometimes in order to find a more specialised sensor for the weather station it will be necessary to use the offer of external companies.

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It is crucial, however, that any sensor used to be placed in the weather station is fully compatible with the base unit. In particular, it concerns the protocol with the help of which the data are transmitted. Attention should also be paid to the location of the sensor itself – the sensor for the weather station should be located in a slightly shaded place, which is naturally exposed from the blowing wind. This should ensure maximum accuracy of the measurements and, consequently, the generated meteorological forecast.

The exceptions are more sophisticated sensors. For example, the sensor for a weather station measuring wind strength must be located in a place where the wind flow is not restricted in any way. The same applies to a solar radiation sensor and similar detectors.

However, building your own station and selecting the individual sensors can be too difficult a task for many people. Of course this is nothing to be ashamed of, as the whole operation requires a lot of experience and even more patience. For this reason, there are many ready-made weather systems available, however, it should be borne in mind that their cost increases successively with the increase in their capabilities and often an intermediate, ready-to-use electronic “weatherman” will be much more expensive than a system built from scratch from single components with similar functionality. Additionally, in the second case, it will depend on us what weather data we will receive according to our needs.

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