Vashon Now Sports Five Weather Stations

Personal weather stations (PWS) supplement public weather stations, such as those at airports. Given the right equipment, citizens with a PWS can share their weather data with a number of services who will aggregate the data and help collectively provide better weather forecasts for the region.

Owners also get more accurate trend data for their micro-climate and a chance to learn more about the vagaries of climate science. I for one was frustrated to have a localized NOAA forecast for 39° while snow remained on the ground all day. (It turns out temperatures are measured at face height: 5-6 feet above the ground and so temps may be significantly cooler at the ground.)

Find out more:

• Citizen Weather Observer Program
• Weather Underground
• Independent Weather Enthusiast’s Forum
• [PWS Weather](http:// Weather “http://www.pwsweather.com/") & their [HAM Weather](http://HAM Weather “http://www.hamweather.com/") and WeatherForYou

Steve Allen, publisher of The Loop newspaper and tech wiz at Voice of Vashon, originated the first 3 PWS I know of on Vashon. Someone else started one on the Old Vashon Highway loop, north of town a few months back. Last week I started transmitting data from my personal site on north Vashon.

While high quality gear can cost $500 to many thousands of dollars, I was able to scrape by on only $80. It seems pretty robust, but only time will tell if it lasts very long!

Check out recommended equipment at these sites:

• eHams Reviews
• Weather Underground
• CWOP’s list (at the very bottom of the page)

Rather than the more popular Davis or Ambient Weather stations I went to Costco #1 and got the Acu-Rite Professional Weather Station for $80. While certainly not professional quality, it does offer a pretty robust set of features for a great price to get started with. (Caveat: I returned my 1st unit as it wouldn’t connect via USB. The 2nd has worked better.)

Most critically it comes with the Acu-Link software which pumps data up to various sites on the internet. I only send data to Weather Underground so far, but may send the data to other sites in the future.

Steve sends his to www.wunderground.com, www.pwsweather.com and Weather bug Back yard.

It also looks like many folks send their weather data AND their location over HAM radio via APRS. (I only send location – when I bother to move my rig 3 feet closer to the window to get GPS reception!!!)

Another great introduction to all this (with more recommendations for equipment and weather viewing software) is in a 2013 NY Times article.