Anyone With A Weather Station?

satori · October 4, 2008

Do any of you have a weather station at your house? I got in to it last year. The Arizona Monsoon is an incredible two months. We get rain nearly every day. It only lasts for a short time each day, but it can dump several inches in 15-30 minutes. Cars have to pull off the road and wait it out. Vehicles get washed away every year trying to cross normally dry washes that cross the roads, and people need to be rescued by helicopter.

Anyway, I have an Oregon Scientific WMR-968 with remote wireless, solar powered sensors. The base station is connected to a dedicated PC in the garage that acts as a data logger and pipes the data out to my website. My anemometer up on the roof stopped transmitting the other day so I need to get up on the roof tomorrow to straighten it out, but you'll get the idea by checking out my site. All of this data comes from the sensors on my roof and in my back yard. It does a lot that I don't have enabled because it would clutter the look of the site. Nobody really needs to know visibility and cloud base height, right?

Besides, that data is available by clicking "Detailed Conditions" or "Tabular Data". You can even call in to it and an automated voice will tell you the current conditions.

http://mike.magnuson.com/weather/wx.htm

I recently added a live camera on the roof and embedded the image on the page. It's clickable for a larger image, but obviously it's just a black picture at night.

This is the sensor cluster the way I had it mounted at my old house.

When we bought a house last year, I separated them and put the anemometer on a pole on the roof and the other sensors on a pole in the back yard.

Here's the camera on the roof.

Zembonez · October 4, 2008

My brother has an OS weather station at his house. He's a weather nut and chases storms like crazy (which he is). I just look out and see if the roads are wet... to tell if it's gonna rain myself. I haven't watched a weather broadcast in years. I do check the radar occasionally if we have a hurricane a coming.

dietz4ibanez · October 4, 2008

I have always called me Nipples barometers... They can tell me whats going on in the great outdoors..

But on a serious note:

Ever since the movie Twister and studying Tornado's in highschool I have always thought that it would be cool to be a storm chaser!

tobias · October 4, 2008

That's a pretty cool setup.

I keep track of things locally with the help of this: http://home.comcast.net/~wildcatweather/

That's at a house just a mile or so away from me. It appears you guys are running the same software.

dietz4ibanez · October 4, 2008

That's a pretty cool setup.

I keep track of things locally with the help of this: http://home.comcast.net/~wildcatweather

That's at a house just a mile or so away from me. It appears you guys are running the same software.

you fixed that fast daddy... Just thought I would help you out!

satori · October 4, 2008

That's a pretty cool setup.

I keep track of things locally with the help of this: http://home.comcast.net/~wildcatweather/

That's at a house just a mile or so away from me. It appears you guys are running the same software.

Yep, same software. The Ambient Weather software is the most popular one out there. It works with most stations and adds tons of features to even basic stations. As you can tell, there are a ton of ways to change the layout. If you want to see how unorganized and cluttered you can make it, click the link on my site titled "Al's Weather Station East of Hereford".

satori · October 4, 2008

I have always called me Nipples barometers... They can tell me whats going on in the great outdoors..

But on a serious note:

Ever since the movie Twister and studying Tornado's in highschool I have always thought that it would be cool to be a storm chaser!

Plus, it would be the PERFECT excuse to build an armored truck with steel plates and bulletproof glass!

tobias · October 4, 2008

That's a pretty cool setup.

I keep track of things locally with the help of this: http://home.comcast.net/~wildcatweather/

That's at a house just a mile or so away from me. It appears you guys are running the same software.

Yep, same software. The Ambient Weather software is the most popular one out there. It works with most stations and adds tons of features to even basic stations. As you can tell, there are a ton of ways to change the layout. If you want to see how unorganized and cluttered you can make it, click the link on my site titled "Al's Weather Station East of Hereford".

Welcome back, 1996!

Darkanion · October 4, 2008

Do any of you have a weather station at your house? [...] I have an Oregon Scientific WMR-968 with remote wireless, solar powered sensors. [...] I recently added a live camera on the roof and embedded the image on the page.

I bought a house back in May. I've been planning to get some sort of weather station setup, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. The OS WMR-968 is one of the setups I was looking at. I'm sure it's overkill for what I need, but I still think it'd be kind of neat.

That's one heck of a camera, by the way... Much more than I expected when you said you had added a live camera. My neighbors would probably freak, if I put something like that up on the roof!

satori · October 4, 2008

Do any of you have a weather station at your house? [...] I have an Oregon Scientific WMR-968 with remote wireless, solar powered sensors. [...] I recently added a live camera on the roof and embedded the image on the page.

I bought a house back in May. I've been planning to get some sort of weather station setup, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. The OS WMR-968 is one of the setups I was looking at. I'm sure it's overkill for what I need, but I still think it'd be kind of neat.

That's one heck of a camera, by the way... Much more than I expected when you said you had added a live camera. My neighbors would probably freak, if I put something like that up on the roof!

Lol, the camera has a web interface that I can log in to from anywhere and move it around up and down, side to side. It even has built in mobile support so I can run it with my cell phone. I can look down into the neighbor's back yard, but I leave it pointed up.

rvsahs · October 4, 2008

So Mike, are you, like the local equivalent of Jim Cantori of TWC fame during the monsoon season? You certainly have the bells/whistles to provide an accurate report on site!

As for me, I just look out the window to check on the weather. Rain guage is a coffee can. If we get a heavy rain, another can to measure the overflow!

The anemometer is a log chain tied to the swingset out back. If its swayin' at a 45 degree angle, its a windy day. If 90 degrees you'd better run for the basement/saferoom!

2000DV4.8 · October 4, 2008

That's a bit more high tech than my setup...

Zembonez · October 4, 2008

Talked to the crazy brother today. His setup isn't nearly as elaborate as yours but it is an Oregon Scientific unit. Your web page with the current conditions / info is cool.

satori · October 4, 2008

Nice weather rock. ^^^^^

Talked to the crazy brother today. His setup isn't nearly as elaborate as yours but it is an Oregon Scientific unit. Your web page with the current conditions / info is cool.

It's surprisingly affordable. I bought the station and sensors for $189. I think I'm in if for about $500 now including the camera.

Zembonez · October 4, 2008

Nice weather rock. ^^^^^

Talked to the crazy brother today. His setup isn't nearly as elaborate as yours but it is an Oregon Scientific unit. Your web page with the current conditions / info is cool.

It's surprisingly affordable. I bought the station and sensors for $189. I think I'm in if for about $500 now including the camera.

That's not bad at all. He has the software setup and a weather station but no camera. I wouldn't know one from another myself.