NZ Weather Forum

Gidday Guys,

Firstly Happy New Year to you all, and all the best to you and your families for the year ahead.

With the rain returning today, I have put off further hay cutting as the forecast fro the next few days on METVUW is very average for the West Coast NI... not much chance of the hay on the ground drying enough for baling!

Anyway, I have picked up a second hand Lacrosse 2310 WX from a neighbour who got one overseas. Working in the wind and rain, I have thought of some WX questions that maybe you guys (having far more experience than I) could offer advice on...

1. Is there any advantage to having 2 stations installed? For example, to compare recorded data/accuracy/back up?
2. What type of webcam do you guys have connected to your WX's for picture uploads to the net? I am keen to expand my WX to include this.
3. Has anyone built a one wire lightning detector? If so, where do u source the components locally? Is it a difficult build for a electronics novice?
4. Would you guys expect differences between two WX's installed in the same positions?
5. Is a fan aspirated temperature probve enclosure preferable?

The last 6 months of 2K4 was fascinating in the installation of the WX and dedicated PC for monitoring of on farm weather... the Weather Display Software I use has now replaced the farm diary for recording weather...its detail is far superior!! I look forward to building a good data base over the coming years and sharpening my weather forecasting skills!!

Any advice on the above is appreciated if you guys have time!!

Anyway, back to it....cheers lads
Andy

Hi Andy,

I run 2 temperature sensors and take the lowest temperature after reading both of them as being the most correct. One is on the south side of the house and the other is on the roof. This seems to get sensable readings most of the time but on windless, warm days, both sensors read high. John G has similar problems with his screen I believe.
I have thought about installing a small fan on one of the sensors but for the few days that this is a problem in my location, I have not bothered so far.

Another advantage of having 2 stations would be to check errors between them, if one records a gust that seems a bit high, check it on the other one.
The overhead of collecting and managing data from 2 stations may be more hassle then its worth.

As for a web cam, I'm using an old 640 X 480 digital camera that only has a serial connection. It was possible to remotely control the camera via its serial connection so it was suitable for a web cam. I have connected it directly to the web server PC and used Gphoto (http://www.gphoto.org/) to control it.

Yeah, what Jeff said.

I also find it's good to have "manual" instruments on hand to compare readings from electronic equipment.

All our screens are fan aspirated. Both are situated in the shade all day, so temperature errors are minimised, but I still think the fans are worth the small amount of extra labor involved.

Unlike Jeff, our stations are quite distant from the other, and at different altitude/elevations: the Omarama office station is sited at 430m, while the Benmore stations are at 1,808 and 1,894m.

Anyway, a man can never have too many toys. That's what I reckon.