Choose a Most Suitable Weather Station for Your Intended Use

A weather station is a complex unit. It consists of numerous instruments necessary for measuring the weather variables. Weather stations not only come in different shapes and sizes, but they also come with varieties of features designed for various purposes.

When selecting a weather station, it’s essential to consider the purpose that you need a weather station. If you need a weather station only to stay updated to simple temperature or humidity, it’s no use purchasing a high precision system and wasting money for unnecessary features. Here are a few guidelines that can help you select the appropriate weather station for your need.

Application

1. Home Use

Home weather stations are designed for home use. This type of weather station comes with home weather software along with a few pieces of equipment for measuring temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction and other weather variables depending on the model of the weather station. For home you can choose between the following weather station types;

• Basic Home Weather Station

Some wireless weather stations and wireless thermometers are available that are specially designed for the home. They mostly come with a display and a small integrated outdoor sensor that can be hung at your backyard. Depending on the type of model, this kind of weather station comes with thermometer, barometer, humidity and wind sensor. If you are only interested in the temperature, then select the weather station with only thermometer feature. However, by investing a few more dollars, you can get a model that has all the advanced features.

• Complete Home Weather Station

A perfect home weather station is ideal for the weather enthusiasts who love to stay updated with the weather conditions. It includes all the sensors in the primary weather station and comes with an additional sensor for rain. For those who spend most of their time outdoors, this type of weather station proves to be a great help for planning their day. A complete home weather station is available in wireless as well as cable. You can choose according to your preferences.

2. Professional Use

Weather stations are a vital tool for weather professionals who frequently require weather data and forecast. For this field weather stations are designed extraordinarily. These weather stations meet the meteorological standards, and almost all the professional weather stations offer real-time weather data. These are most suited for educational, commercial, industrial and military monitoring of weather. This type of weather station is similar to the complete home weather stations, but they are more accurate and reliable.

The weather information that you get from TV and radios are real-time data that meets the meteorological standards but they might be 10-20 miles away from the location you reside, and so they aren’t able to provide you the data of your exact location. Having a professional weather station offers you accurate weather information in your area.

Professional weather stations are mostly preferred for agricultural purposes. It could be a great help for farmers when they are aware of the weather and soil conditions as it helps them harvest much better. Many high precision and advanced professional weather stations come with additional sensors for measuring other conditions such as ultraviolet radiation, leaf dampness, soil and water temperature, and soil moisture.

3. Other

There are also other types of weather stations that are applicable for various other purposes.

• Analog Weather Stations

For those who wish to set a weather station as decor, the analog weather stations are designed for them. The analog weather station is no different than any other home weather station as it provides all sorts of weather information depending on the type of model.

• Hand-held Weather Stations

Whether facilities manager, field installers, technicians or campers; weather station can help you plan every part of the day. For those who need a handy weather station right in their hands, the hand-held weather station is the right choice. From anemometers to barometers, the portable weather station comes with all the sensors that make it a reliable and accurate unit.

• Smartphone and Wi-Fi Weather System

You can even purchase the Wi-Fi weather system through which the weather data can be accessed through a Smartphone instead of a display or console. It allows you to monitor the weather conditions of your home location right from wherever you stand.

If you are a weather enthusiast, you might also prefer uploading data to various sites via phone or PC. For this particular purpose, some weather stations have been designed that can be directly connected to the PC or smartphone, allowing the user to log on to some favorite weather sites to post weather information and conduct an analysis.

Location

Be it professional or for home; the place is a significant aspect that you must consider before purchasing a weather station. There are areas where the weather changes drastically. Some locations might have 2 to 3 times more wind speed than the average speed, with more frequent changes. If you select a weather station which updates at a slower rate, the information provided by the weather station won’t meet the current conditions. So make sure that the weather station you select can keep phase with the changing weather in your location.

Elevation

When you are purchasing a home or professional weather station, height is a must consider factor. Some low-end weather stations are not suitable for high-level elevation as the pressure decreases with the altitude and they aren’t designed to work in such low atmospheric pressure. For higher elevations like hills and mountains, the weather stations must be able to suit the conditions and work with precise accuracy.

So, if you need a weather station for the mountaintop or hilly area, make sure the weather station is compatible with higher elevations. Also, the transmission distance must be good enough if there is likely to be more obstacles between the sensor and the receiver, for most accurate data.

Climatic Conditions

Climatic conditions of your location are also a vital consideration. In some areas, there are severe freezing and icing conditions. Some of the weather stations are not recommended for those places as they aren’t weatherproof and won’t be able to withstand the extreme freezing. The anemometers of the weather stations must be selected carefully in these cases, as most of them fail due to icing.

There are those high-end weather stations that are designed weatherproof and works efficiently and accurately in any conditions. Select a weather station according to the liable climatic conditions of your location.

Conclusion

Many novice weather station buyers regret their purchase due to the wrong decision. It happens in many cases that they end up either purchasing a unit with very few features or too many. To avoid this, it’s crucial for you to make a couple of researchers and know what would best suit your need. For professional weather station buyers, things can get more complicated as these weather stations are more complicated.

However, if you can understand your requirements and be sure with it, choosing the right weather station for a particular purpose can be very easy. With the appropriate decisions, you’ll get the ultimate results.