As a kid I always wondered how do they report amount of rain in mm/inches. While staying in Sirsi (after moving from dry Chitradurga, I was shocked to see the amount of rain can occur in a day in Sirsi! Was bit depressed in the beginning seeing so much of rain and complained[or cried?] about going to school. That was in 9th std, lol), I did try once to measure the amount of rain using an old plastic mug. But this didnt satisfy me. It always stayed in my mind that I will one day do something.
That day came after almost 15years when I came across a website "http://www.weeleyweather.co.uk/". An enthusiastic lad had setup a weather station and I was really impressed by his dedication. Though I was aware of weather station kit before, I was looking for some reviews before proceeding to buy.
After going through few reviews on the internet, I choose "Oregon Scientific WMR88 Full Weather Station". This one was good for beginners, semi-pro and I didnt mind spending £140 on that. With this you can measure and analyse Temperature, Humidity, Rainfall, Barometric Pressure, Wind Speed and Direction. You can upload the data to computer via USB cable.
The full weather station includes:-
1) A 'Base station' or console, which displays the data it receives from sensors. Only drawback is data is not stored in the console!, it has to be fed to a PC to store it. This is a major drawback in India because of power cuts! There are other alternatives available.
2) 1 Wind sensor (includes wind wane and anemometer) which takes note of wind direction and speed. This will mounted on top of the house.
3) 1 temperature & humidity sensor which will be mounted on outside wall.
4) 1 rain gauge, to measure the amount of rain!
Check the manual below on how to setup up the weather station! I found it pretty easy to setup and running.
(manual for the weather station can be found at "http://uk.oregonscientific.com/ulimages/manuals2/WMR88.pdf")
The good thing about the weather station is that it is wireless. The sensors are not wired to the console!
I bought the weather station in March2012 and its been setup and running since April2012. The link to the weather data is below:
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IKARNATA11
There has been only one incident of heavy rainfall on 1Nov2012 when pressure dropped to 1007.7hpa and we had rain of around 15cm!!!
The data received by the console is uploaded to 'Weather Underground' website via software "Virtual Weather Station Internet Edition" VWS V14.01. This software is paid and not free. There are other free weather station softwares like cumulus and 'wview' for linux.
Currently I have a PC running the weather station software for 24hrs (power cuts permitting), uploading weather data every hour. The total cost of running this is as below:-
1) WMR88 - £140
2) VWS software - $100
3) Cost of PC running 24hours - The electricity bill is coming upto 300Rs/month. Mine is a Dell Zino HD PC which has power cosumption of just 75W.
In future I would like to see a full fledged android app capable of running all features of weather station software. This will nullify the need for PC. Plugin your base station to an android phone, running weather station software, via USB :)
PS:- I had mounted the temperature & humidity sensor outside my house and as predicted by my dad, within couple of months, it got stolen by some over enthusiastic thief :). I thought he will return it considering its of no use for him! But probably he felt too embarrassed to come back! So advise is to secure it!
That day came after almost 15years when I came across a website "http://www.weeleyweather.co.uk/". An enthusiastic lad had setup a weather station and I was really impressed by his dedication. Though I was aware of weather station kit before, I was looking for some reviews before proceeding to buy.
After going through few reviews on the internet, I choose "Oregon Scientific WMR88 Full Weather Station". This one was good for beginners, semi-pro and I didnt mind spending £140 on that. With this you can measure and analyse Temperature, Humidity, Rainfall, Barometric Pressure, Wind Speed and Direction. You can upload the data to computer via USB cable.
The full weather station includes:-
1) A 'Base station' or console, which displays the data it receives from sensors. Only drawback is data is not stored in the console!, it has to be fed to a PC to store it. This is a major drawback in India because of power cuts! There are other alternatives available.
2) 1 Wind sensor (includes wind wane and anemometer) which takes note of wind direction and speed. This will mounted on top of the house.
3) 1 temperature & humidity sensor which will be mounted on outside wall.
4) 1 rain gauge, to measure the amount of rain!
Check the manual below on how to setup up the weather station! I found it pretty easy to setup and running.
(manual for the weather station can be found at "http://uk.oregonscientific.com/ulimages/manuals2/WMR88.pdf")
The good thing about the weather station is that it is wireless. The sensors are not wired to the console!
I bought the weather station in March2012 and its been setup and running since April2012. The link to the weather data is below:
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IKARNATA11
There has been only one incident of heavy rainfall on 1Nov2012 when pressure dropped to 1007.7hpa and we had rain of around 15cm!!!
The data received by the console is uploaded to 'Weather Underground' website via software "Virtual Weather Station Internet Edition" VWS V14.01. This software is paid and not free. There are other free weather station softwares like cumulus and 'wview' for linux.
Currently I have a PC running the weather station software for 24hrs (power cuts permitting), uploading weather data every hour. The total cost of running this is as below:-
1) WMR88 - £140
2) VWS software - $100
3) Cost of PC running 24hours - The electricity bill is coming upto 300Rs/month. Mine is a Dell Zino HD PC which has power cosumption of just 75W.
In future I would like to see a full fledged android app capable of running all features of weather station software. This will nullify the need for PC. Plugin your base station to an android phone, running weather station software, via USB :)
PS:- I had mounted the temperature & humidity sensor outside my house and as predicted by my dad, within couple of months, it got stolen by some over enthusiastic thief :). I thought he will return it considering its of no use for him! But probably he felt too embarrassed to come back! So advise is to secure it!
