How to Choose the Best Home Weather Station
Forecasting, Wired, Wireless, Electronic, Digital, Professional
Nov 16, 2009
Home weather stations differ in the:
- Number and types of sensors connected.
- Range and reliability of external sensors.
- Display and alarm options.
- Calculations done with the measurements from the sensors.
This article only covers digital electronic weather stations. Prices range from $35 to over $100 (including external temperature sensors, but excluding rain and wind sensors). Warranties are usually one year. Popular brands include Oregon Scientific (Crystal), National Geographic, Weather Channel, La Crosse, Honeywell, Davis (Vantage Pro2), Thermor, John Deere and Acu-Rite.
Basic Personal Digital Weather Stations
Simple weather stations only measure temperature (thermometer) and relative humidity (hygrometer). Measurement accuracies for home units aren't high but are good enough to be useful: usually plus or minus a few degrees Fahrenheit for temperature, maybe 10 percent for humidity.
Remote temperature and humidity sensors allow the outside temperature to be known before leaving the house. They can also be used to monitor the conditions in baby nurseries, greenhouses, wine cellars. Settable maximum and minimum threshold alarms means hands-off monitoring. An ice alarm warns of freezing temperatures that can affect pipes and fish ponds.
Remote sensors can be wired or wireless. Wireless sensors usually:
- Have open air ranges of about 300 feet. The range is greatly reduced if there are any walls in the way.
- Use AA or AAA batteries. Lithium AA or AAA batteries work better than alkalines in cold weather.
- Should be placed in the shade for accurate temperature readings.
- Aren't waterproof. If no suitable shelter is available, a well-ventilated plastic box can be used.
- Record temperature only, though some also record humidity.
- Might be less reliable. Malfunctioning wireless sensors are a common complaint from customers, on online shopping sites such as Amazon.
More sophisticated units can display information such as:
- Moon phase (based on date).
- Sunrise and sunset times (based on date and location).
- Dew point temperature (based on humidity).
- Heat index or comfort level (based on temperature and humidity).
Other useful features include:
- AC mains power for base station. Many are battery-only.
- Backlit display.
- Large display, large enough to be seen from across the room.
- Clock synchronization with a national atomic clock via radio is quite standard.
- Switchable Fahrenheit or Celsius display.
- Switchable 12 or 24 hour display.
- Maximum and minimum temperature memory. This should be easily resettable. Some are reset by removing the batteries, which is inconvenient.
- Low battery indicator.
- Ability to be hung on the wall. Many have wide bases that make this impractical.
- Reasonable minimum temperature. Some units can't measure temperatures below -5 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Clear and easy display of information from external sensors. Units can display all readings all the time, need to be manually switched, or cycle through each sensor automatically.
Weather Forecasting Weather Stations
Weather forecasting is based on measurement of air pressure (barometer). Manufacturers claim forecast accuracies of about 70 percent, and that the forecast is for 12 to 24 hours in the future. Only one barometer is needed (typically added to a basic temperature and humidity weather station). Air pressure inside and outside the house is similar. A remote barometer doesn't add any useful information.
Despite what the weather station might display (rainy, cloudy, sunny), air pressure alone can't be used to predict rain or shine. What it can predict is:
- Worse weather (pressure dropping), often indicated by a rain icon.
- Better and clearer weather (pressure rising), often indicated by a sun icon.
- The same weather (no change in pressure), often indicated by a cloud icon.
For more accurate predictions, some units:
- Allow the altitude of the location to be entered.
- Have different sensitivity settings for different locations: high for seaside, low for dry inland areas.
Weather geeks will want to see the actual pressure displayed (millibars or millimeters of mercury) together with the pressure trend (going up or down). Simpler units only show the pressure trend. A 24 hour hourly graph allows better visualization of pressure trends. A storm alarm feature (sudden large drop in pressure) is a useful feature.
Professional Weather Stations
Systems sold as "professional" have all the features of basic and forecasting models, and are designed to be attached to compatible wind and rain gauges. They display wind speed (anemometer), direction and amount of rainfall. A high-wind (storm) warning is a good safety feature.
The Best Home Weather Station
Personal weather stations aren't as necessary as they used to be. Cable TV stations and websites (such as Yahoo! Weather and AccuWeather) dedicated to weather forecasts mean that the same or better information (satellite photos, 24 hour trend graphs) can be obtained for free or with a small subscription fee, even for small towns.
Home weather stations are still useful:
- On boats and other no-Internet-access places.
- For their storm and low temperature alarms, convenient at-a-glance display of information.
- As an educational tool for children.
Triple sensor stations (temperature, humidity, air pressure) provide the best balance of performance and low cost. Remote sensors are the weak link in many systems: the Internet should be searched for user complaints.
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