OT: Just in time for monsoon!

[Satori]

The 2007 monsoon outlook promises a very active season here in Cochise county. I am now prepared.

I bought a pro/home weather station for my house. It collects unbeleiveable amounts of data and I stream it to the web in a few different formats. On this first link, it's just a very basic graphic that just gives current conditions. Definitely check out the link at the bottom to view the station directly. Lots of graphics. On that page, be sure to click the two links on the left (detailed and tabular) to see all of the data points that it collects and logs.

http://mike.magnuson.com/weather/basic

If any of you are weather buffs, let me know, I'll give you the details of what I got and from where.

I got the rest of my mounting hardware today and got it all set up:

[Westy82]

preatty interesting gadget. saw it shows 120 degrees for an extreme high today, must be due to direct sun light?

[azmorpheus]

I have a similar unit and one thing I have noticed is if you set up the temperature sensor in the sun it will give you a very high (wrong) reading. Mine gets morning sun and it is saying that at 9:30am it was 115ºF. I noticed yours is saying that it got to 120ºf today. Yours is way better then mine though, I cant have a live web page that I can check from anywhere, that is cool.

[Satori]

Lol, yeah, I didn't initially order the solar shield, so it was reading rediculously high until about 10am. I recieved the shield today (it's the thing on the bottom in the pic) Hopefully that will keep the temp readings accurate. I'll find out tomorrow.

[dcall]

Cool Toy

[Satori]

azmorpheus - the software says it supports most weather stations. The dropdown to choose your station is very long. It's $60 for the internet version, and would probably work with your station.

http://www.ambientweather.com/virtualstation.html

[corivus]

thats really cool looking

[badfish]

Thats way cool.

[Kentanner11]

cool!

[iboard2]

Do you really need one of these in Arizona?
I can give you the weather report for the next month....... HOT and SUNNY!!

J/K, cool toy!

[jpeggerling]

Thats pretty hard core! But very cool.

[Satori]

Originally posted by iboard2
Do you really need one of these in Arizona?
I can give you the weather report for the next month....... HOT and SUNNY!!

J/K, cool toy!

Most of the year, you're right. But monsoon is a whole 'nother story. Our monsoon down here tends to be a lot more chaotic than what you see in Phoenix, or even Tucson.

[Smo]

Very nice Satori.
Are you a member of SKYWARN?

Wish I had a setup like that. Our HOA would shoot me if I had a mast 14' - 18' high for good readings in my 'cookie cutter' neighborhood.

Been a trained spotter for the NWS for 2 years now and have always been interested in something that nice. Just no room for it here.

Thanks for sharing.

[Satori]

I'm not participating in SKYWARN, actually. Not to say I won't. I'm just learning all about all the stuff like that. The station came with a bunch of information and organizations that I'll be checking in to.

BTW, if it wasn't for your HOA, this isn't that expensive to get in to. I'm in for ~$450. If you already have a pole, that saves you $50 right there.

[Westy82]

glad to see the heat shield worked. no more 120 degree temp readings

[azhunter]

wow, i know a lot of us consider ourself "reef geek"...but with a contraption like that would you call yourself a "weather nerd"!?
i just bought something similar...not quite as high tech though..

you never realize how many hobbies there are that people can get into!

[Satori]

Originally posted by azhunter
wow, i know a lot of us consider ourself "reef geek"...but with a contraption like that would you call yourself a "weather nerd"!?
i just bought something similar...not quite as high tech though..

you never realize how many hobbies there are that people can get into!

You're off to a good start. All you need is to put a live web cam on it, and a GPS position monitor, and a thermal scanner. Oh, and a sealed 802.11n wireless router to connect to your dedicated PC, and you're there!

I thought I was a weather "buff", but I guess I may have graduated to weather "nerd"

[ipwizard]

Very nice Satori,

I love the weather, and during the monsoon season it's just awesome to see how fast weather conditions change.

I live in Peoria and for some reason where we are we seem to get pounded by weather every year. I had a 1/4 inch of hail in my back yard about 2 years ago during a thunder storm. I'm the type of person that will stand outside just to experience the storm.

I would like to know where you got the equipment from. Please PM me.

Do you have to worry much about lightning strikes with that mast up in the air like that?

[Satori]

The place is actually in Phoenix. That's where it shipped from, anyway.
I got the unit on this link, the internet software, USB adapter, 25ft serial cable, universal mounting shelf, a mounting pole, and solar radiation shield.

They do reccommend that you ground the pole. I still need to do that before the storms come.

http://www.ambientweather.com/wmorscwiprwe.html

[Satori]

They're in Tempe, actually. Sorry, I think of it all as Phoenix.

9365 S. McKemy Street
Suite 104
Tempe, AZ 85284

[SWSaltwater]

Hope it comes with a lightening rod built in........Did a beta test when I worked at AOL for PC satellite stuff. Lightening hit a coworkers dish and melted his PC, dish, and TV. Was the best bug report I ever read.

[Satori]

Luckily it's completely wireless and solar powered, so it's not connected to anything. A strike would only fry the sensors on the pole. I do plan to ground it though.

[Richard Walston]

Whats next a PM10 sampler on the roof You need to get a data logger and a modeling program for your computer now. I use the RM Young Instruments personally.

[Satori]

Lol, I just looked both of those up. I don't need the sampler, and the RM Young Instruments equipment is a bit out of my price range.

[Satori]

Richard Walston - since you seem like a man in the know, I'll ask you. How can I find the current sea level pressure? The instructions say I need to enter that, but they don't say where to find it. Google searches have not shown me anything I'm comfortable using.