Topic: Wether Station Recommendation

[stromb0li]

Hey WX Forum,

I have been doing quite a bit of research and am torn on what PWS I should purchase.  Particularly, I really am focused on a station that provides higher precision/accuracy vs ease of installation/less durable pieces.  I'm not concerned with how the console looks as I very likely am just going to access the data via Wunderground or ideally, would like to code my own little weather homepage.  I have a tablet I place in my kitchen, so I'm hoping to make that my "mobile console"   If I could get away without even having one, I'm fine with that as I'd rather put the money towards the sensors.

I'm leaning towards the Davis VP2 6152 + WeatherLinkIP (but open to other weather stations as well) since the reviews are great and it seems like they've corned the market, but there's a few questions I have.

• How do these hold up in regions with regular snowfalls during the winter?  I live in a region where we have really harsh winters (some days can be -40/50F and snow is not uncommon).  I see they have a heater, but is that still valid for the new VP2 series and is there any way to power it via Solar?
  
• How do these hold up if it hails/sleets?
• With the Davis series, it seems like they are incredibly proprietary and they force you into using this weatherlink.com website.  I have two concerns with this:
  
  • By forcing the data directly to weatherlink.com, doesn't that add latency in terms of publishing to CWOP and Wunderground?
  • If Davis decides to deprecate weatherlink.com, am I essentially stuck with just the console and would have no flexibility in being able to publish directly to CWOP/Wunderground?

Thank you and appreicate any thoughts!

[bchwdlks]

Look at Davis VP2 6152 + WeatherLinkUSB + Meteobridge

The Meteobridge piece will give an easy method to publish your data to many Weather services in addition to CWOP & WU. 

WU appears to be putting an end to free/easy access to data by weather station users. The  Meteobridge has enough flexibility to allow you access to your data many different ways.

[doubleohwhatever]

+1 for Meteobridge

[stromb0li]

Appreciate the comments!  Crossing fingers the Davis is all it holds out to be--should be here next Wednesday!

[miraculon]

    How do these hold up in regions with regular snowfalls during the winter?  I live in a region where we have really harsh winters (some days can be -40/50F and snow is not uncommon).  I see they have a heater, but is that still valid for the new VP2 series and is there any way to power it via Solar?
    How do these hold up if it hails/sleets?
    With the Davis series, it seems like they are incredibly proprietary and they force you into using this weatherlink.com website.  I have two concerns with this:
        By forcing the data directly to weatherlink.com, doesn't that add latency in terms of publishing to CWOP and Wunderground?
        If Davis decides to deprecate weatherlink.com, am I essentially stuck with just the console and would have no flexibility in being able to publish directly to CWOP/Wunderground?

No problem with snow here in northern Michigan, near the "tip of the mitt". I have a homespun version of the gauge heater in my Davis. (as you noted, that this requires the old conical shaped funnel and not the new AeroCone). It seems that you get the old style cone with the Davis gauge heater. I already had it since my Davis is several years old.

The heater resistor is 25W, so it might be feasible to construct a solar power system with a sufficiently large panel and battery. I don't know if anyone has tried this, but I have pondered this as well. I power my heater out of a transformer located in the garage with buried low voltage lighting wire. (Malibu-type)

We have not seen anything like -40°F though, we do get a lot of snow and some below zero temps.

Small hail (¼ inch) hasn't caused any problem, but we haven't received any really big stuff here. Above some arbitrarily large size of hail, I don't know if anything can survive. We had sleet all day this past winter. The heater melted it, but a nearby Davis seems to have survived since it is presently recording rain again this spring.

As mentioned by others, the meteobridge is quite capable of uploading to a number of weather sites/services as well as your own web hosting via FTP. I do this myself. I previously used the original meteobridge, but now I use a Pro Red (with receiver) for this. Other programs are available it you can run a dedicated PC 24/7.

Greg H.

[Central Maine Weather]

I too agree that a Davis VP2 is the right move. Here in western Maine we see pretty harsh winters and my VP2 has held up strong for 5 years so far without a single issue. All I've done is regular cleaning maintenance and I've replaced the transmitter battery a couple of times. I love it!
 
  - Matt

[The Weather Master]

I agree, the Davis Vantage Pro2 Solar Powered Wireless model is the only way to go! 

[stromb0li]

Excellent!  Super excited to get this thing setup.

On a side note, @Matt, your display picture of the snow drifts help reiterate your story really well, thank you!   Do you use the heater add-on?

[Central Maine Weather]

Excellent!  Super excited to get this thing setup.

On a side note, @Matt, your display picture of the snow drifts help reiterate your story really well, thank you!   Do you use the heater add-on?

Anytime! You’ll love it! I actually don’t use the heater. While the snow does collect in the rain cone, it only collects to the top of the bucket and the rest drifts out. It all melts out at the end of the season and it’s as good as new! If I wanted to get water equivalent readings from the snow I could/would use a heater in the rain cone however.

[SnowHiker]

No problems in winter, though I generally just cover the rain collector and enter moisture amounts manually.  The rain gauge is already inaccurate enough, from what others have said adding a heater and trying to measure winter precip makes it even more inaccurate.

I've recorded temps down to -41.5F on my old original VP, however the VP2 with the new improved digital sensor is guaranteed not to read below -40.  I forget the specs, but I think the fancy new sensor makes up for it's rather limited lower range by increasing its upper range, just in case you're concerned when the nearby lakes may start boiling.