• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Car mounted weather stations: pole length

Joined
Jun 26, 2004
Messages
1,104
Location
Italy/Tornado Alley
Hi all
Who knows how long has to be the pole of a car mounted weather station?

I mean, it's important that the radiation shield is not too close to the rooftop of the car, in order to not be influenced by the heat of the metal.
I made my pole 70cm long. What do you think about?
 
Andrea, apart from the separate issue of how to mount an anemometer, which is more complicated, I'd venture that the vehicle's roof can be considered as "the ground". If you want to be scientifically correct, then I imagine you'd site the instruments at WMO standard height for a ground station, which I understand is 1.25m. FWIW.
http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/124
 
It depends on how accurate your wanting your data. For me...for chasing purposes (NOT research purposes) than just a half a meter to one meter is plenty. Being from Italy I'm gonna 'assume' you rent a car, but for those that own, you can also paint the roof white to lessen the affects if you own a dark color car. I did this to my Dodge Caravan...and it really works (keeps the inside a bit cooler too).
 
you can also paint the roof white to lessen the affects if you own a dark color car.

This is actually quite a loaded statement as it not only depends on the color of the roof, but primarily on the thermal mass of the roof. If you have a black, solid metal roof then it's going to heat up considerably and re-radiate a lot of that heat upwards. If however, you roof is made of say, some sort of dent resistant plastic, then even a black roof won't heat up as much and therefore won't re-radiate that energy. Conversely, painting it white may have some negative affects. For example, you paint it white, which reflects a lot of the incoming solar radiation. Now that temperature shield that before was only getting the irradiance from the sun, is now getting the irrandiance from the sun AND the reflected irradiance from your car roof. The effective heating ability can go up considerably just by changing the car roof to white. So, the answer to this thread's question is far from simple.
 
I think Saturn is the only car that has a plastic roof, and that was only on some models.

All I know is when I did it...the sensors where more accurate AND it was slightly cooler inside (according to the weather station).
 
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