We are now broadcasting weather observations from an electronic Weather station here at AccuWeather HQ. It is updating every 5 minutes now and you can see brief observations to your left (click on "more" to see graphs and dials). We went with a wireless Davis Vantage Pro 2 [ buy now @ AccuMall ] because it's the new standard for electronic weather stations, and I have long believed that Davis is the preeminent electronic weather station company. It's pretty much all they do, so they are dedicated to it, and I've always heard good customer service stories about them.

DAVIS VANTAGE PRO CONSOLE

We setup the thermometer / humidity sensor and raingauge assembly outside in the grass on the West side of the building. The hard part was getting the anemometer (wind indicator) on the roof so it would register legitimate wind speeds. Fortunately, Davis has a separate transmitter kit so you can put the anemometer far away from the main assembly.

I felt a little bit like the Mythbusters yesterday when I went up to the roof with Randy B., Facilities Manager and Helper of Jesse On Strange Projects. [ If you haven't ever watched Mythbusters then you have to try it out... it IS a science-geek show but for some reason even my wife and daughter love it. ]

STAIRWAY TO WINDY HEAVEN

I CAN SEE FOR MILES AND MILES...

The Davis manual recommended that we keep the anemometer 5 feet above the roof, which sounded about right to me, based on my meteorological experience. The higher you can get your anemometer, the better, because it will have less chance that the wind will be affected by other objects. The problem with our installation was, you can't just throw any sort of tripod up on our roof. We may have 25 satellite dishes up there and they were professionally installed, and protected from lightning strikes. The floor of the roof is also easy to damage, so you have to be careful.

LOTSA DISHES UP HERE...

I wanted to get the anemometer on the west side of the building to catch the high winds from the big winter storm systems (which is about the only kind of high winds we get here in Central Pennsylvania). Problem was, there was nothing there to mount it on. It turned out that the only available pole to mount the equipment on was a satellite dish on the East side. We mounted it to the top of the pole and it turned out to be the highest spot on the roof. I'm no aerodynamics expert, but the only possible issue I see physical interference from is a satellite dish that's next to, but about a foot below, the height of the anemometer. Regardless, it beats having it on the ground!

RANDY FINALIZES INSTALLATION

Making sure that the solar panel was facing south, and the anemometer was facing north, our mission seemed to be complete. We had checked first (of course) to make sure that the console, down at my desk, would receive the signal from the anemometer. You have to teach the console to receive the anemometer signal as a "second station" since it has a different transmitter. The line-of-sight for the Davis transmitters for the Vantage Pro 2 is 1000 feet, which is excellent for electronic weather stations. It has no problem getting through the roof of the building and down into Operations (which is one floor with a high ceiling).

We later find out that it won't transmit downstairs to a second console deep into the Programmer Underground, so I set up my console to receive both signals, then retransmit downstairs. Davis saves the day again.

THE FINAL LOCATION OF THE ANEMOMETER

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