In this age of digital technology, with instant access to up-to-the-minute data, forecasts, and images from the National Weather Service (NWS) and innumerable other online sources; with timely reports from local broadcasters and cable television networks, with personalized forecasts and storm alerts sent directly to your email, pager, or cell phone; why would anyone need a home weather station?

The answer to that question lies right there in your backyard, where the weather conditions you experience at home are often not the same as any of those resources might suggest. We know that all too well living here in southwest Virginia, as weather conditions up on the mountain ridges can be completely different from those down in the valleys. Local public safety agencies recognize the importance of on-site professional weather stations too, relying on them to provide timely and often critical weather information for emergencies and during times of severe weather. In addition, airports, schools, utility companies, agricultural businesses, as well as a host of others utilize professional weather stations to monitor their local weather conditions; an important and necessary tool for their organizations.

Whether simple or elaborate, personal weather stations will provide you with information that cannot be obtained anywhere else. Cable free weather stations or wired home weather stations are high-tech, affordable, and fun to use. And having the ability to glance over at your home weather station console from the comfort of your couch or easy chair is not only convenient, but fascinating as well.

A home weather station usually includes a clock and some also display the current moon phase. Basic weather stations offer features such as inside and outside temperature and humidity and atmospheric pressure. Complete weather stations can also monitor wind and rainfall, as well as calculate dew point, heat index, and wind chill. The more advanced professional weather stations offer additional features such as faster sampling rates, extensive data graphing and history, and sensors ranging from ultraviolet, solar radiation to soil temperature, soil moisture, and leaf wetness. Many are also capable of calculating evapotranspiration, an important factor for agricultural concerns.

Interest in weather is nearly universal and the information that personal weather stations provide, combined with additional relevant study, can offer you an opportunity for a rewarding lifelong hobby. Most have discovered that their home weather station has given them a better understanding of weather, which has heightened their interest in other aspects of the natural world. After all, weather observation is not just confined to where you live. Hopefully at the very least, you will improve your weather forecasting skills to the point where it will help you to avoid setting off on an outing that could potentially be ruined by an unexpected change in the weather.

 

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