Many people are searching for a professional weather station as opposed to a home weather station or weather forecaster. There are literally hundreds of different weather stations available; some starting as low as $20 and others as high as $1000 or more. The reason that you are searching for a pro weather station is probably because you have experienced the inaccuracy of the cheap weather stations that include forecasting; you get what you pay for.
Some of the Chinese manufactured and cheaper weather stations with forecasting icons are so inaccurate that it makes them useless, especially for forecasting. One person that lives in southern California told me that 95% of the year his weather station showed the partly cloudy forecast symbol, when in fact the sky was clear blue and sunny all day long. So, the solution is to buy a professional weather station that is a lot more accurate; some are near scientific accuracy.
Types of Professional Weather Stations
The first type of pro weather station is the $500 and up units, like the RainWise Mk III and the Davis 6152 Vantage Pro2. These weather stations use radio technology to wirelessly transmit weather data up to 1000 feet line of sight. The normal range through walls is between 200 and 400 feet, but you can add wireless repeaters for distances up to 1.7 miles.
Generally, the more expensive stations from the likes of RainWise, WeatherHawk, Texas Weather Instruments, Columbia Weather Systems (Orion, Magellan, and Capricorn,) and others, don’t have weather forecasts but they usually supply more accurate weather data. You can also find weather stations from $2000 all the way up to $6000 if you want a scientific weather station that is the most accurate.
The second type of professional weather station is the semi-pro stations in the $100 to $500 range. These are the most popular weather stations because of their low price but beware of inaccurate data. Data like wind speed averages and humidity are often very inaccurate on the cheaper Chinese units, therefore you can not rely on wind chill, heat index or dew point data either.
Seriously, the only thing professional about these cheaper weather stations is that they use the word pro or professional in their name. The instruction manuals are mostly awful as well so you will need to look around for a source of a good manual to be able to set up and tune your weather station. For example, you can download the Radio Shack Cable Free Weather Station with AccuWeather from their website as a substitute for the pathetic manual that comes with the Oregon Scientific WMR968 weather station.
Included on this site are weather station reviews of professional, semi-professional, and even the cheaper home weather station and weather monitoring clocks. They are included because many people can not afford a true pro weather station but they are interested in owning a weather station. So, read through the reviews to find a weather station that is worth while buying.
Weather Forecast Stations
Nearly all of the cheap weather stations include weather forecasting. This includes all the Chinese manufactured weather stations but it also includes the Davis weather stations. Even the $500 to $1000 Davis Vantage Pro2 series has forecast icons, but it is generally not accurate for forecasting. On the other hand, I would recommend the Davis weather stations for what they were designed for; collecting and analyzing weather data. After all, a professional weather station is used for collecting accurate data and it is for humans to use that data to devise a forecast.
My advice is to look for the best quality and most accurate professional weather station that you can afford. If you also want a weather forecaster then the only one that I have seen that works is the E.S. Sorensen Stormglass. The solid metal exterior of the Stormglass encloses a glass cylinder filled with a combination of liquid and suspended crystals. If the weather is clear and dry then the liquid inside the Stormglass is clear, but if bad weather is on the way, the liquid becomes cloudy long before you can see anything on the horizon. When the Stormglass gets murkier, so do the conditions outside. Even in the middle of a storm, a clearing in the liquid will guarantee sunshine soon.
You can anticipate changes in the temperature and moisture levels as they are shown by a variety of crystal patterns and movements that are illustrated in the accompanying manual. It is unclear just how the E.S. Sorensen Stormglass Weather Change Predictor works but it is thought that it has to do with the electromagnetic changes in the atmosphere as cold and warm fronts collide. One thing is certain; it is the best weather forecaster I have seen.
Leave a Reply