GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: weather

  • Chicago Italian Beef, that’s ours… : GardenFork Radio

    Chicago Italian Beef, that’s ours… : GardenFork Radio

    This week: weather is the #2 search term, Brooklyn tornadoes, Chicago Italian beef, honeybees, alternators, cooking politeness, food photography, dog photography, filareefarm.com, localharvest.org, and Eric on driving the Ford Escape Hybrid

    photo by WallyG

  • The Allison House Weather Station Update

    The Allison House Weather Station Update

    A while back on GardenFork Radio I was saying how much I’d like one of those weather stations that sit on your roof and you can hook up to the internet.

    Then Allison House, a weather data company, sent us one. ( I like how this works )

    The Allison House Weather Station
    The Allison House Weather Station

    We assembled the weather station, which is an Oregon Scientific WMR968. It has an anenometer, wind direction, rainfall, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure sensors, which are all solar powered and connected via wireless to the central display in our house.

    here is the inside of the rain guage. always wondered how that worked
    here is the inside of the rain guage. always wondered how that worked

    This display is then connected via USB to our internet router, and bang – our super microclimate weather data in our yard is on the web and on my iPhone. We use WeatherUnderground to post the weather data, this site aggregates weather info from a ton of personal weather stations. You can search by zip code to see if there is a weather station near your. You can use the smartphone version of their site for remote check-ins.

    I installed this in 16F weather. fun.
    I installed this in 16F weather. fun.

    AND the best part is the graphs and historical data is collects. I can go to the site, and see graphs for the past 24 hours, past week, past month, etc. This has been good to have with our bees, as I can tell when the bees have probably been leaving the hive during the late winter, early spring. Its also great for gardening, when we have a few years of data, we can see the average frost date for our yard. One of our neighbors down the hill has a weather station as well, and I can check his now for frost dates , though his date will be earlier than mine, as he is lower in a valley.

    This daily graph tells me the Honey Bees were out in the afternoon. And its interesting to watch the barometric pressure drop.
    This daily graph tells me the Honey Bees were out in the afternoon. And its interesting to watch the barometric pressure drop.
    Temps above 50F means the honey bees are out working
    Temps above 50F means the honey bees are out working

    Hooking up the weather station to the net took a bit of work, it was not plug and play, but not too hard either. The enclosed instructions are good, and there is an active community of users online.

    A big thank you again to Allison House for providing the weather station. You can follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/allisonhouse

    Do you have a weather station? Let us know, be cool to compare equipment and uses.