Hey, if you have been following this blog for a while, you might remember that I had a weather station on Wunderground (formerly Weather Underground). I sold that one to my neighbor and upgraded mine to this, a new technology version of the same instrument with no moving parts. But it is now in a different spot. The place it had originally been was just off the right corner of my house, just about where that silver globe can be seen, if you enlarge the picture.
So, you might wonder, as I am wondering about now, why I moved it. While it was easier to move than to install, it still took planning and about 2 hours to make it happen.
I moved it because it was too close to both my house and my neighbor’s house to get a reliable wind speed and direction. My neighbor’s house is just to the left of mine. His weather station has consistently shown a northerly wind, while mine has indicated a southerly wind.
So why should I believe his station is more accurate than mine? I can actually see his directional indicator showing a northerly wind. Why does his station suggest something different? It has to be because it is about ten feet higher than mine. So, maybe I should raise mine higher. Yeah, I don’t think so. I gained an extra foot in elevation just in the move. And out where it is now, I can feel a definite wind from the south. I couldn’t feel close to my house. Further improvement in my station accuracy is about raising it, which I may be able to do once. But these things require periodic maintenance, which means I have to lower them regularly to a point I can reach on a ladder.
I have a tall enough ladder for that, but since I live alone, I don’t trust myself to do maintenance without a “spotter.”
Memory is the Key 