Best weather station or vehicle mount

[Chris Strahan]

Ok guys, looking for experience here....

What is the best weather station or a vehicle mount? What have you used? What are the pro's and con's?
I would welcome your feedback!!!

Thanks in advance

 

[John Diel]

The best? Best is a hard question. Equipment wise, RM Young makes "scientific" grade equipment and is used extensively by NOAA and many universities.

Another contender that looks pretty good and has impressive specs would be Columbia Weather Systems.

However, these have their price. They ain't cheap.

After that, I would go with Davis Instruments and their various packages. They put out reasonably good data and are generally robust enough for what we do. Pricing is much better too.

Oregon Scientific would be the next one I would look at, but again, you get what you pay for.

Mounting to a vehicle is a home grown affair. Take a look at the NSSL Mobile Mesonets and the various Universities that have these. Also, do a search through the archives here and you will find as many mounting options as there are vehicles to mount.

Some things to consider before emabarking on this:

1. What are you going to do with the data you collect?
2. Do I want this permanent or do I want to remove it?
3. Do I really understand what's going to happen to this when it gets hit with a 90 mph gust?
4. Is it safe?

That probably doesn't help much but it will give you a start. A trick here is to do a search on the forum before asking too much. There's a wealth of information out there and there are many of your questions already answered.

Good luck!

 

[Chris Strahan]

I apprecieate the info! I should have stated that indeed price is a factor here. I have a home Oregon Scientific one and it is ok. I am mainly looking for temp/dew rain, and wind. So basic stuff. I think I would certainly want the ability to have the anomemeter running, but have the option to take off the device if I knew high winds were coming while driving (so I would not damage it as it would not be a professional grade)
Anyway.... hope that clarifies my original q's

 

[David Drummond]

#3 would be more like:

Do I really understand what is going to happen when I am travelling at 70+mph and a semi passes me at 70+mph going the opposite direction, resulting in an instant violent gust well over 100+mph
If your mount can take that, it will take any wind a storm is going to throw at it....before you have other problems to worry about anyway.

On the Davis/Oregon Scientific comparison:

I have had both (currently using a Davis) In several years I never once broke a wind cup or any other piece of the Oregon Scientific anemometer. Since I have had a Davis, I regularly break the wind cups, usually about 4 per season, and had the bearings freeze up in one anemometer. The Oregon Scientific was the cheaper one. Just my own experiences with using them both extensively in mobile applications.

The plus side is Davis is quick to ship out parts. I don't know about the OS one because I never had to buy parts for it.