Make your own weather forecast

The British have long been obsessed with the weather: it’s our national pastime.

The Meteorological Office has records of UK weather for every day since the first of January 1869, but amateurs have been collecting data since time immemorial.

Technological advances mean that we no longer have to take manual observations once a day, every day, come rain or shine.

For about £200 you can equip yourself with wireless sensors and PC compatibility – sampling the weather thousands of times a day, manipulating the data on your computer and even publishing it on your web page.

Projects based on gathering weather data have great educational and practical potential. They can be used for local forecasting; many localities have unique micro-climates that aren’t covered by the general forecast. In addition, anyone whose activities are affected by the weather might want to collate weather data for themselves. Finally, it’s fun, so why not give it a go?

The kit
Weather stations typically come as a base station (often called a console), which lives indoors and displays the data gathered by the sensors. One or more peripheral sensors are supplied, usually with an option to add more if required.

Wireless communication between console and sensors is the norm these days. The console is usually mains powered while the external sensors typically run on batteries, although at the higher priced end of the market, they can be solar powered.

The range of weather monitoring and gathering equipment is huge, and in this brief survey we’ve divided the kit into four broad categories by price. All prices are approximate: as ever, it pays to shop around.

Functionality increases with price, so in most cases the features described for less expensive options will be available for the more expensive ones. Alwa ys check the specifications for any must-have feature: information on resellers’ websites can be sketchy, so visit the manufacturers’ sites too.

Simple and fun: under £50
The first group of kit in our round-up provides an always-on weather forecast with limited data gathering, but without the ability to link to a PC.

Having said that, the functionality offered by even the cheapest weather stations is impressive, such as that of La Crosse’s Wireless Weather Forecaster WS 7014 at about £28.

It measures barometric pressure, can indicate the pressure trend and displays forecasting icons for the next 12 or 24 hours.

It also measures indoor temperature and humidity and, from a remote wireless sensor with a 25m range, the outdoor temperature.

Maximum and minimum temperatures can be stored with timestamps. It’s also a radio-controlled clock and calendar and another two sensors can be added if required.

Oregon Scientific’s Wireless Weather Forecaster RMR683HG – about £35 – offers very similar features plus an ice alert, an alarm on reaching high or low values for temperature or humidity, temperature trend and phase-of-the-moon displays.

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