Science At Home: Home Weather Stations

When I was a kid, I just love science. Every science class I took in school was a joy to me, and I relished each and every science project that I was assigned. And one of my favorite projects - one that made a lasting impression on me - was the construction of my very own home weather station. It was made of crude materials, but everything worked just fine, and building it and learning how to use it left me with a life-long interest in Meteorology to this very day.

So, when I turn the pages of my local hobbyist catalog, I am transported to that earlier time, when with a few boards and nails in hand, I constructed a weather station and filled it with equipment that I largely made myself. It was crude, not fancy, but in most cases it worked with a fair degree of accuracy - and I learned so much from my experience that I decided to write this article to share some of my insights with you.

Fix this firmly in mind: you have 2 choices. You can either go outside to take your weather equipment readings, or you can stay inside and get your readings off of an instrument panel. Those are your options. Stay inside or go outdoors.

If you want to go outside to take your readings (the old-fashioned method), then you will need to make sure that your instruments can be completely stored outdoors (not all models can). You will also need to locate your equipment in some sort of a shelter - typically made of wood or metal, with louvered vents. And of course, you will be forced to go outside - even when it's cold and rainy - to take each day's reading.

On the other hand, you can purchase equipment for your home weather station that will let you stay indoors (at least most of the time). Typically, the 'business end' of the equipment will be mounted somewhere outside, and then wires will connect it to the read-out display panel indoors. Some equipment made today is wireless - eliminating the need to run cables or drill holes in your house walls to run it inside.

If you are a home weather station newbie, you should begin your forecasting journey by investing in basic equipment: rainfall indicator, barometric pressure gauge, wind direction and speed indicator, and humidity gauge. Some of these are sold as an integrated weather workstation unit, with an indoor 'dashboard' that will give you your equipment readouts. The equipment does all the work, you stay indoors nice and toasty. Nice!

If you get ambitious (and as your skill and knowledge grows), you can invest in such things as a thermo-hygrometer (it measures humidity and temperature, giving you a 'heat index'), or a baro-hygrometer (which measures humidity and barometric pressure). In general, the wireless home weather stations are easier to get up and running, but they can cost considerably more than their wired counterparts. Some home weather-persons believe that the hard-wired equipment gives better readings than the wireless type, but you will have to judge that for yourself.

Make sure that you understand this: most of this stuff is not cheap to buy, so if you are thinking of buying it for the kids at home, you better make sure that they REALLY are interested, or else you may have a weather station worth hundreds of dollars just sitting idle on your back porch. But many families find that a home weather station is a great all-family activity, especially in homes with older teenagers, or perhaps just parents who, like me, never grow tired of discovering something new about this great planet we all live on. Happy forecasting!

Article Source: http://www.myaddirectory.com

Author: Kelly Gillis has landscaped her own backyard and wants to help you. To learn about backyard landscaping and gardening and small backyard ponds visit her site.

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