Weather Station Mounting

[justinmacauley]

Hi there,

Hoping someone can give me an answer here on this - I was wondering how you all mount your weather stations on SUV's and Van's? David Weather Stations used to have a mag mount for vehicles, but they discontinued that. Not sure quite how to get one on a roof? There is a pipe that is standard for mounting all weather stations or 2. starlinks. This roof mounts can be bought. I know how they are mounted on trucks to some extent and these generally use a ladder rack. But not sure about regular vehicles.

 

[Dan Robinson]

There aren't any mounts for vehicles for these types of weather stations, you have to make one from scratch. I had a mounted Davis station way back when I started with Plains chasing from 2003 to 2005. The issue with those is that they aren't built for the stresses of being on a vehicle full time. The anemometer bearings don't last very long when they're constantly spinning at 75-80mph+ driving on the interstate (100mph when driving 70mph south into 30mph southerly winds).

I didn't really find anything useful about having one, so I removed it once the anemometer broke. An ultrasonic anemometer would work much better for a vehicle, but they are pretty pricey. All I have now is a Kestrel and it's pretty useful, it's just that I need to get out of the car to use it.

 

[justinmacauley]

There aren't any mounts for vehicles for these types of weather stations, you have to make one from scratch. I had a mounted Davis station way back when I started with Plains chasing from 2003 to 2005. The issue with those is that they aren't built for the stresses of being on a vehicle full time. The anemometer bearings don't last very long when they're constantly spinning at 75-80mph+ driving on the interstate (100mph when driving 70mph south into 30mph southerly winds).

I didn't really find anything useful about having one, so I removed it once the anemometer broke. An ultrasonic anemometer would work much better for a vehicle, but they are pretty pricey. All I have now is a Kestrel and it's pretty useful, it's just that I need to get out of the car to use it.

I see, so I would want to get something ultrasonic or I am going to be wearing out the sensors on a regular basis. Yeah, that was what I noticed. It seems that I would have to build my own rig to go up on a roof of a car. The closest I ever saw was the magnetic mount Davis offered.

 

[Evan Hawkins]

I see, so I would want to get something ultrasonic or I am going to be wearing out the sensors on a regular basis. Yeah, that was what I noticed. It seems that I would have to build my own rig to go up on a roof of a car. The closest I ever saw was the magnetic mount Davis offered.

me personally, why not make a portable one? (although the idea is from twister) why not make a dish that its on a movable stand, keep it in the truck/van (unless you have a bedcover don't use truck)?

 

[Quinton Kirsch]

The short answer is you don't. The "professional" automated weather stations you buy from existing vendors are not designed for use on vehicles. There is no way to correctly derive wind speed and direction independent of your vehicle motion unless you manage to somehow read the data packets from it and do vector math with GPS and compass. The weather station geometry isn't designed with vehicle aerodynamics in mind so you are making several trade offs in accuracy there. Beyond the fact that they use multi-plate radiation shields and hygro-thermometer not even designed for outdoor use. And what Dan said, they aren't designed for constant exposure to roadway conditions and will usually self destruct. If done correctly they are a commitment and significantly increase your vehicles clearance. NOAA/NSSL mobile mesonets are not for the faint of heart. That is why the entire vehicle platform is built around that frame.

But say you are totally sold on going this route - great - here's what I would do:

If your vehicle does not have existing roof rails I would invest in Yakima roof rack towers and round cross bars. When I was experimenting with my own mobile mesonet years ago I found aluminum tube in the same dimensions as the OEM round crossbar for much less. Worked just fine. I would make a vertical weather station mount using a couple foot aluminum tube tee'd off from the center of either crossbar and then subsequent supports to the other crossbar. If you wanted to be even cheaper you could do this with PVC tubing in the appropriate pipe diameters.

Don't expect anything more than a vague estimation of your environmental conditions. I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade but really ask yourself why you want one because chances are 9/10 times you don't.