A New Weather Station

Our new weather station.

We've had a weather station here in the house ever since I've lived here. Actually, when I moved in with Sheila, I brought my weather station at the time with me to Sheila's house. Every few years, better weather stations at more affordable prices are manufactured so we've upgrade to newer models every five years or so.

The weather station we've had for the past four or five years was okay but it was difficult to read in our hallway. We have a small area in our hallway just outside our kitchen where we have the house controls... our thermostat, our telephone/intercom base unit (yes, we still have a landline-based VOIP telephone system... two line... two remote handsets... because cell service is spotty, almost non-existent in our neck of the woods not to mention obscenely expensive)... the weather station...  and this area is adjacent to our half bath and laundry room. It is just a nice common area of the house in close proximity to our coats so we can check the weather before choosing what to wear outdoors.

Our hallway isn't overly bright so it was difficult to read our older weather station. The old weather station is not in color and it is fairly basic. The biggest issue, however, was that it was not backlit making it very difficult to read in daylight and impossible to read at night. You could press a button to illuminate it but it would only illuminate for a few short seconds at a time. We've now moved this older weather station to Sheila's nightstand (our resident weathergirl) to make room for the new weather station.

At one time, I was certified in meteorology and compiled forecasts many times a day for flight crews. I even wrote meteorology publications for the Air Force to use as rules and guidelines for daily operations. I would say I definitely have an interest in meteorology.

Every now and then, when we need more accurate weather forecasts than the local weather stations tend to provide, I will get online and compile my own forecast... which always contrasts significantly to the forecast released by the local forecasters. My forecast, however, is always more accurate thanks to my training and decades of experience. 

Although I referred to Sheila as our resident weathergirl above, I am also interested in weather and follow it closely. I just don't like to make small talk about the weather but would prefer to give a weather briefing or simply complain about our seemingly constant frustrating unseasonable weather! 

That being said, I also have an attitude of "been there, done that" with everything I've experienced in life thus far so I tend to get bored fairly quickly with this topic but I must also say that I abhor strangers making small talk about the weather. If you truly want to talk about the weather, I will talk about the weather...  just don't babble generic weather nonsense to me (ie, recite what you heard the local news weatherperson recite on the news) simply because you have absolutely no idea what else to talk about with me. Open your eyes as well as your mind and find something interesting to talk about... please... newscast weather chit-chat is about as mind-numbing as one could get.

Today, newer and better weather stations are being manufactured and are constantly coming down in price. This was the time to order a new weather station... a better weather station.

I found a really nice weather station model that is backlit at all times... in color... and it even shows current wind conditions including wind chill, gusts and average wind speed for the past 30 minutes, one hour or two hours. It also shows temperature and humidity indoors (as well as outdoors) and the current atmospheric pressure. I can view the forecast and track past conditions. I installed this new station last night and, so far, I'm happy with it! Best of all... since it is powered by an outlet, this station stays illuminated at all times making it very easy to read on our wall in our darkened hallway.

The sensor unit mounted atop our light post.

Temporarily, we placed the outdoor sensor unit on top of our lamp post. This is not an ideal location, however, due to the close proximity to a large tree which will block some wind. 

When I finish building our barbeque/kitchen area in the backyard (waiting for better weather, ironically), I will move this sensor to that roof which will move the sensor unit farther away from this big tree. For now, this sensor unit should be fine perched on top of our lamp post.

It is funny... now, whenever I walk through the hallway, this illuminated weather station immediately catches my eye whereas the old one wasn't even noticeable even when I wanted to read it!