Stormfly

Back in the days, pre-internet, no ham shack was complete without a Heathkit station!  Holy grail was the ID-4001 system and (of course) the ID-5001 system that came later.  Capable of good numbers and true realtime readings.  Rainwise was another option.  None were particularly cost conscious of course.

Unless you have a grant or specific reason to spend upwards of $50k for a truly professional station that is designed to last for decades, there are plenty of choices for the consumer/prosumer out there.

I recently connected a WeatherFlow Tempest unit and still am evaluating it.  For the money (approx. $300 USD) and no recurring fees, it seems like a solid unit.  Many will be happy with its compact form factor (HOA/WAF friendly!) too.  It's not without quirks, of course, but from what I'm seeing so far it seems like a safe bet if spending over $700-$1000 for a fully featured station like the Davis 6163 is out of your budget.

Wind accuracy not only depends on anemometer design itself but location.  Most home sites aren't very friendly for accurate wind measurements using standard rule of 10 meters AGL for anemometer and three times height for ANY obstruction.  With ultrasonic anemometers we like to see 1km from any tree line or tall buildings, etc.  A lot of the home stations also have a slower reporting rate without memory/buffer meaning that the wind reading captured happens to be whatever is happening at that time of reporting.  Optimally, the system is reading continually in between reports and shows min/avg/gust/max values.  Ultrasonic instruments can sample much faster, some programmed as high as 100Hz!  So if the post time (in the example of a remote site that's autonomous) is every 60 seconds, there will be 6000 data points!  10-30Hz is more typical with these setups and where precision is needed heaters and other mitigations are required to maintain repeatability for ultrasonic anemometers as well as sonic thermography. 

Remember it well!  Lots of fun with that storm.

Here's a shot of the TV.  11 years ago to-day!  Wow!

3 minutes ago, StormchaserChuck! said:

4,000 replies, what are you people crazy?

Weather or not begs the question!

8" plus another 2" after sleet/zr slop.  Impressive mess to clean up.

Woke up to another surprise!  Widowmaker maple tree left us a gift in the yard and fortunately it came up short of blocking the lane.

I don't mind storm cleanup this time of the year, I'd rather be shivering as I warmup into the workout then sweating like a pig in mid August with 75 dews LOL!

Just came in from trying to get some ice pics with the SLR.  Can't get a handheld shot worth a damn and heard loud cracking of weighted down tree limbs.  Oh great!  Haven't heard it like that since the ice storm in 2014 which did heavy damage in our forest of balsams and spruce trees.  Lights flickered a few times and picked up a few power line flashes to our west too.  It's going to be a long night.  It's sleeting hard now.  Rain started at 1609 here with 8" of snow.  Cleared the lane as it's never fun to deal with that crust on top!  Insert obligatory "Imagine if this stayed all snow" line here!

3 hours ago, 40westwx said:

This will go down as the worst winter storm ever for me... I say this with a heavy heart.. earlier today my son took our Great Dane out to play in the snow... as he was galloping through the snow he collapsed and suddenly died.. he was extremely healthy.. it makes no sense.. I had to put him in the car in the front yard and take him to the vet to get him cremated.. 

It happened in front of all the neighbors... I feel like this isnt real or something...

Sorry to hear that.  I grew up with a Great Dane and all Great Dane owners have unique tales of glory.  The worst part about the breed is their short life expectancy. Losing a pet is heartbreaking.  They are members of the family.

Temp accuracy looks good.  The shield works.  But like anything else location is everything.  Mine is up on a tower.

The rainfall for Monday now shows 1.51 so it was corrected.  Still a bit high but my tipping bucket probably needs to be calibrated because it seemed a bit low a 1.03".  I need to put a CocoRahs in the pasture!

Cats mesmerized by flakes the size of paper airplanes zipping by the window!  Silly felines!

Yes it's definitely coming down now!

Temp holding steady.  26/25.

I don't know about anyone else here, but if today was Christmas Eve, this would be perfect!

27/23 moderate snow, a few mm including untreated pavement here.

When was the last time anyone used snow boots?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

29/20, snow intensity increasing.  Actually looks like snowflakes instead of dandruff!

Finally snowing here!  Very light flakes falling.

29/19.  It's too warm.  Would like to have seen it about 17F when I woke up.

At least it's nice to see those white streaks on the roads and actually have snow falling the next day!

Nothing but a raw breeze here so far!

28/18

2 minutes ago, North Balti Zen said:

29/20 balt city

28/18 Emmitsburg 

getting on the road now - next obs in a few hours will be from up there. Fingers crossed. 
 

my yellow lab is as pumped as I am (she loves trips)

Yellow labs are awesome dogs! 

2 hours ago, mappy said:

Love it! Mine is very familiar with radar, she's been watching it with me since she was 2. gotta start them early. 

Funny how times change!  I remember when radar first came to TV weathermen.  I watched WJZ (Bob Turk aka the Sunshine Kid!) and it was called "Sky Eye".  No real definition just yellow blobs overhead that let you know it was doing something.  And when it wasn't doing anything it was called ground clutter.

Now we have access to realtime (well as close as we can get to it) NX88 anywhere there's a cell signal - in our pockets.

27/16.

Waiting for the worms, er. rain to come.

On a serious note, with dews this low, how long are we going to get virga'd?

3 hours ago, mappy said:

Hold down the fort @WxUSAF I gotta take a dog to the emergency vet, fairly certain she had a seizure. 2020 sucks 

Sorry to hear that.  I've been through this with two dogs. 

Even though it was pretty to look at, don't want a replay of this!

That backend snow forecast was 2-4".  We have close to 16"!!!

Over 237,000 (BGE) customers out.

January 26, 2011.

13 minutes ago, H2O said:

me tommorow.  I'm not that fat tho

A two stage snow blower would empty that swale out in no time, dumped right into the street!

Haptic rainfall sensor definitely needs processing!  It reported just over 3" for us today where the (real) gauge shows 1.03".

3 minutes ago, osfan24 said:

It "looks" like it is trying to snow here. I don't see flakes, but rain drops have that weird look where they are really big.

That's what we've been seeing for the past hour or two.

35.7°F and some flakes mixing in moderate rain here.

It's quite the mess, imagine if the main snowmaker was arriving TONIGHT with temps dropping in the 20s.  Jan 26, 2011 redux for sure!

Does anyone use the digital accumulation array outputs (NexRAD)?

The numbers seem way high for this event, like perhaps there's stronger echos due to ice at that level?