Author Topic: Weatherstation in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains  (Read 1805 times)

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Offline acatalano

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    • Carriage Hills, Boulder County Weather
Weatherstation in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains
« on: April 16, 2018, 12:34:44 PM »
I've had a Davis VP2 (and an earlier version) weather station at an elevation of about 6700 feet in the Foothills of the Rockies near Boulder, CO for many years. It had been on a tripod 10 feet off the ground with the base weighed down with rocks. This was needed to remain standing given the extremely high winds that are frequently present. A few months ago we had some adolescent Mountain Lions hanging around. I watched as one jumped up and knocked down a yellow jacket nest, apparently for fun. A few days later, the weather station was knocked down too. There was no high wind to account for it. Was it the Lions? I'll never know. So...I moved the weather station to the roof. Here it is in the attachment. Weighed down with concrete blocks and guy wires to hopefully keep it upright and away from the wildlife!

Best Regards,
Anthony Catalano

Best Regards,
Anthony Catalano
Boulder, CO
Websites:
http://www.boulderwx.com
http://www.boulderweather.org
http://www.apcat.org

Blitzortung Lightning Detector Station 1965


Offline CW2274

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Re: Weatherstation in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2018, 03:47:52 PM »
Anthony, unfortunately you went to a lot of trouble just to get useless temp readings when the sun is out. The heat will radiate straight up from that tile roof and make the readings pretty much worthless. Even after the sun goes down, the tile will continue to radiate heat until reaching ambient temp. hours after the fact. Then your good til the sun comes up, lather, rinse, repeat.

Offline acatalano

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    • Carriage Hills, Boulder County Weather
Re: Weatherstation in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2018, 04:57:17 PM »
Actually I have the fan aspirator running on the temp/humidity sensor. Of course at this altitude the wind is always blowing too. When the system was 10 ft off the ground, it was on a ridge. There, the upslope winds from heating by the sun down slope made the temperature/humidity sensor the recipient of rising air heated by the ground below. So it's always something that's not quite right. The roof is a light grey, sort of a neutral density card if you were calibrating a lightmeter. MADIS (https://madis.ncep.noaa.gov/) which compares the data with NOAA (I'm just up the road from them) and nearby stations gives it a 2 thumbs up rating and a check mark. So I think it's OK. And it's a bit harder for the mountain lions to get at it!

Best Regards,
Anthony Catalano


Best Regards,
Anthony Catalano
Boulder, CO
Websites:
http://www.boulderwx.com
http://www.boulderweather.org
http://www.apcat.org

Blitzortung Lightning Detector Station 1965


Offline CW2274

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    • Conditions @ CW2274 West Tucson-Painted Hills Ranch
Re: Weatherstation in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2018, 05:05:40 PM »
Actually I have the fan aspirator running on the temp/humidity sensor.
The only thing a fan will do here is show the error of the siting more rapidly and accurately. Being a lighter tile will certainly help, but it's still tile. Obviously your choice, but I'd look elsewhere.
http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/CWOP-Siting.pdf

Offline WxLover16

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Re: Weatherstation in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2018, 09:17:38 PM »
Actually I have the fan aspirator running on the temp/humidity sensor.
The only thing a fan will do here is show the error of the siting more rapidly and accurately. Being a lighter tile will certainly help, but it's still tile. Obviously your choice, but I'd look elsewhere.
http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/CWOP-Siting.pdf

CW is right. All the fan will do is help draw the heated air that the tile is creating across the temp sensor at a faster pace, so the fan in this case will not do anything to counteract the heating caused by the tile. Above grass is ALWAYS the way to go if at all possbile if you want anything close to accurate.
Davis Wireless VP2 SHT31 24hr 24CFM FARS