Topic: Another Newbie to Personal Stations

[Nevgar]

Hi All;
     I am a newbie to weather stations at home.
     I work as an observer as a subcontractor to Environment Canada ... in other words I launch weather balloons ... so I have some familiarity with weather, instruments, etc.
     I have a couple of questions that I hope you can help me with:
     a) I'm in Canada - are there any good Canadian suppliers;
     b) I'm in Northern Canada (almost 69° N), so we have weather extremes - in the range of -45°C to +30°C. I need to find a station that will work well at those temps / in my conditions;
     c) Batteries don't last longer than about 6 minutes up here in the cold - do I understand correctly that some stations have solar panels?; If so - any hints or info I should be aware of?;
     d) I want to set up a website and/or add weather info to various forums I post to, as well as having a record available locally for personal info - what should I look for or get as far as a logger;
     e) Although I have a PC running pretty much 24/7, our power is notoriously horrid and we regularly have outages lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. By regularly I mean we can count on one or two a month, and if they are having problems, probably 2-3 a week. I don't want data to be lost for any longer than necessary; and
     f) Needless to say, we have snowfall regularly - how do I go about gathering snowfall data with reasonable accuracy (and without having to manually gather data from a Nipher or similar).

That's the bulk of the questions. For info, I am looking at a station mounted at home, providing basic info - Pressure, temp, humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation (rain and snow).
Ideally, a sun gauge, but that can wait a bit.

Budget for the project would be about a dollar and a half. Seriously - budget would be low - probably $300 to $400 range - but that is VERY flexible.

Any help, suggestions, advice, links, whatever would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for anything.

Nevgar - Inuvik, NWT, Canada

[Downlinerz2]

Hi Nevgar,
   Welcome!!!  It must be fun launching weather balloons!!  The cold climate where you live is a problem for many of the moderately priced pws.  Davis stations have problems at temps as low as you have.  The price range you mentioned of $300-$400 limits your choices a bit.  These stations do have solar panels that charge the super-cap.  When it is cloudy the station runs off the super-cap.  When that is used up the batteries kick in.
You would probably want a wireless station.  A rain-gauge heater would be a good idea to measure the water content of the snow. Davis stations use a datalogger and will store the data in case of a power outage.  You will probably want some software like Virtual Weather Station, or Cumulus, or some other. 
    There are others here on the forum who live in Alaska and BC Canada who have much experience with your weather conditions.  They will have the best advice I think.
     Good Luck,
      Mark

[SlowModem]

Hmmm.     Have you considered moving to Florida?

I think I'd be tempted to go with a wired station up there.  I doubt the risk of lightning is as great there as it is in lower lattitudes.  That would eliminate the solar/battery situation in the sensors I believe.  And if you're going to use a rain gauge heater, you're going to have to run wires anyway.

Just my $0.02 cents worth (or whatever the exchange rate makes it, eh?)

PS:  Welcome and enjoy your stay, eh!  Good day! 

[DanS]

You may want to look into Peet Bros. http://www.peetbros.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=2 . That low end temperature environment and your budget allowance limit your choices. Most of the home/consumer types of stations measure temps down to around -40 degrees where it appears Peet Bros. go a little lower than that. I'm not sure about availability/shipping costs for Canada though but do see Peet Bros. has a Canadian dealer listed under their Worldwide Dealers tab.

Welcome to the forum!

[PaulMy]

Hi Nevgar, and welcome to the forum.

Check http://www.forthebirdsnatureshop.ca/ as they offer a pretty good price for the Davis and I have received excellent service from them.

Also check Weather Underground station ID 'INUNAVUT2' for a station on Baffin Island and you can see a picture of the station on his webcam image on WU.  Kaicias there is using a Davis Vantage Vue and you can send a message to him from WU (if you have an account).  You should be aware however, as you will see from that station's data on WU, that the Davis Vue has a low temp recording limit of -40C but the station keeps on running in their lower temperature.

Paul