Weather station "Buyers Guide"

Buyers often consider price and esthetics as the most important factors when they evaluate personal weather stations, but are those the best criteria?

Most consumer products are made to operate "indoors", so price, user features and esthetics are very important. However, a weather station must "live" outdoors, so it is equally important to consider design features that contribute to a rugged, robust system if you expect it to provide years of trouble free service. Don't assume that because the specifications are the same for different brands, then the quality and measurement precision are the same.....they aren't!

You owe it to yourself to consider this purchase carefully. Ask manufacturers the "hard" questions about manufacturing processes, sensor life and maintenance, and long term support; in addition to considering how the system will look inside and outside your home, school or business. Make them commit to personalized support and to an assurance that your system will be useful for years after the Warranty expires. After all, it's "your" money, and inexpensive usually means "cheap" when applied to a weather station.

Do you know what separates one weather station from another?

In general, weather measurement products fall into three broad groups. We break these groups down by "grades". They are: research grade, industrial grade and consumer grade. Learn about weather station "grades" here.

How do you want to display your personal weather station information?

Do you want the ability to customize your weather display and locate it where you want to see it?

An informative, attractive display is at the top of any weather station feature list. Inexpensive systems often offer only a small "black box", with a fixed LCD display covered with "icons" that were pre-selected by the manufacturer. With an LCD display, you must be in the room with the display to see your weather information, and "that" room must be near the weather station location. You can get that much information for FREE on www.weather.com, and be bombarded with pop-ups. FREE may be all you need but if you want real-time weather where "you" are, then a personal weather station will offer you much more.

WeatherHawk® , and it's easy to install, feature rich software applications, Virtual Weather Station (VWS) and WeatherHawk® for Mac OS X, enable you to configure a weather information display the way "you want it".

Look under "Live Weather" to see how other WeatherHawk owners have customized their VWS displays. You can even put your weather display on every PC or flat screen monitor in your home using an inexpensive Wi-Fi network, or through your existing home control system.

Do you want to connect to the Internet with your weather station?

WeatherHawk software versions all offer variations of these great additional features:

• Look at YOUR weather from anywhere in the world over the internet. WeatherHawk data is internet ready to post on a web site, or on a FREE International weather data hosting sites such as Anything Weather(www.anythingweather.com), or the Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com).
• Set up your own local Mesonet using data from the many public weather stations in your region with the easy to use Mesonet building tools.
• Post your weather information to CWOP and become one of the thousands of Citizen Weather Observers throughout the USA.

What is a data logger and why do I need one?

Do you want to "study" weather trends, and do your children want to use your weather information at school .....those activities require a data logger that supports a variety of data export formats. To learn more about data loggers link here.

Inexpensive wireless home weather stations usually use a PIC (Programmable Integrated Circuit) to temporarily store small blocks of weather sensor data in the weather station until it can be transmitted to the base unit or display. However, these are not a data loggers because once the data is transmitted and displayed it is lost.

WeatherHawk does not lose data for two reasons:

          1. The weather station itself has a true data logger that can store over 60 days of hourly data before the system will begin to overwrite the oldest data.

          2. WeatherHawk radio and data management protocols transfer serial data from the logger using error checking and data packet validation protocols that assure all data is received from the logger for storage in the user PC. If you turn your PC off, your WeatherHawk simply stores data until you turn your PC on again; then it automatically transfers the oldest data first until your PC is completely updated.

If you want to really understand and use "your" weather you need an complete archive for forecasting, school projects, or to relate local events to past weather patterns.

WeatherHawk and its companion PC and Mac software applications automatically produce daily, monthly, GLOBE format, min/max/average data files for personal weather forecasting, recording, or school projects.

How about installation and maintenance of the weather station?

A well designed personal weather station should be easy to install. WeatherHawk systems are usually installed by the owner, in less than an hour, using the Quick Start and site Installation Guides provided with the system. If a WeatherHawk owner does have questions our worldwide network of service centers is there to help.

Do you want to spend time maintaining and fixing the outdoor part of your system? Most people want to install and then forget about the outdoor part of a weather station. To achieve that kind of reliability you need the robust design of industrial grade products in your weather station. The rugged components used in WeatherHawk protect your investment in a weather station, even after the Warranty expires. The WeatherHawk personal weather station is also user maintainable with plug-in modules for all sensors.

What are the benefits of a wireless, solar powered weather station?

Wireless, solar powered systems are easy to install because they don't connect to household or facility electrical power equipment. In addition, there is "lightning" to consider, and a wireless system will not conduct lightning from a roof mounted weather station into your home, or PC.

Did you know that low cost "home" weather stations must be installed within 40-to-100 feet of the display location? This is because they use inexpensive low power radio transmitters; although some do achieve greater ranges with optional radio "repeaters". However, for repeaters to reach the range of a WeatherHawk, the added cost quickly brings the price of the low cost system up to a WeatherHawk, but without the robust design.

WeatherHawk uses powerful industrial grade MaxStream spread spectrum radio transceivers to achieve a standard radio range of up to 1/2 mile (line of sight), that is 2,640 feet -- over 65 times the range of low cost products; with enhanced performance to 6 miles (using optional high gain antennas). Radio range is dependent on local conditions and the frequency of the radio in the WeatherHawk.

So what does this increased range really mean to you? It means you can place your weather station in a useful location, rather than locating it based on radio range limitations. Although conditions often require it, the worst possible location for a weather station is on top of a building because:

• radiated heat from the rooftop distorts the air temperature/relative humidity measurements,
• chimney soot degrades wind sensor bearings, and
• wind speed and direction on a rooftop is not the same as on the ground due to surface effects on wind.

If you really want to know what surface weather conditions are, the weather station should be located away from any structure, and at a 2-3 meter (6-9 foot) height above ground level. A standard easy to install WeatherHawk tripod is ideal for this type of installation. Download our FREE Site Installation Guide for more information on where to locate your weather station.

Are all weather sensors the same?

Carefully consider sensor quality when you buy a weather station because sensors are "really" what you are buying. Remember that if a temperature, RH or BP sensor fails you will know it, but as a wind speed sensor wears out it just slows down, so how can you know it is accurate. The best way to assure long term accuracy from your weather station is to buy a quality product in the first place. Compare WeatherHawk sensors and ask competitors about their sensors before you buy.

REMEMBER: Bad weather data is worse than having "no" weather data at all.

What makes an outdoor product like a weather station last for years?

Reliable weather stations also have "hidden" quality features that are missing in low cost products, such as:

• Conformal coatings on electronics to inhibit corrosion, mold growth and other moisture related problems that all outdoor equipment must face;
• Weather-proof outdoor connectors for all external cable connections; Note: Be sure to avoid systems that have cheap telephone jack connectors designed for indoor use.
• User replaceable sensor modules, for when the inevitable effect of the outdoors degrades the precision of even the best sensors;
• Polymer coated, galvanized metal components to inhibit corrosion;
• Ultraviolet light (UV) stabilized plastic components to keep your weather station "lookin' good" after many, many years of exposure to clear, sunny skies.

A WeatherHawk personal weather station has all of these "hidden" features and more. In summary, WeatherHawk means "quality", "value", "utility", and "fun".

Look at WeatherHawk reference sites around the world and see how other system owners are using their WeatherHawk's, or enter the WeatherHawk Store to price or purchase your WeatherHawk now!