Topic: freeze alarm?

[danxx]

As a gardener who pays close attention to freezing conditions for frost-intolerant plants, it would be excellent to be notified if the temperature at a local weather station got below a preset number. Just send me a text when that happens. Or maybe an app that regularly checks a local station, and sounds an alarm if the temperature gets below a preset temperature. If that happens, I rush outside and pull the pot indoors, or cover the plant. I don't want to buy my own thermometer alarm that sits in my yard. Does anything like this exist? Of course, in the daytime, I can check myself regularly, but at night, when the temperature is dropping rapidly, I want something to wake me up.

[R.Sidetrack]

Of course, in the daytime, I can check myself regularly, but at night, when the temperature is dropping rapidly, I want something to wake me up.

Seems to me that a "frost FORECAST" would be more useful, but maybe that's just me.

What about the nights that you have moved the pot indoors the previous night, and its still indoors? An app based on freezing temperature is still going to wake you up  even though the [potential] problem is already taken care of.

If you really want to be woken up, and are willing to pay for that, looks like these folks will take your money: https://www.weatherusa.net/faq/?category=alerts

[danxx]

No, because frost forecasts are often wrong. Example : last night the forecast was for a low of 32F. Barely a freeze. Turned out to be 28F. If I were tuned in to my local weather station, when I was asleep, I could have saved a few plants. Um, obviously, if I don't have any plants at risk, I wouldn't launch the damned app. Also, I want a weather alert from the station down the street, not the station on the other side of town, and I want to set my own trigger temperature. This seems like a straightforward app to write.

[Central Maine Weather]

WeatherLink.com provides the ability to send alarms to your phone via email based off of set parameters for a weather station, but you have to have access to that weather stations account on WeatherLink.com in order to set this kind of 'alarm'. In other words, you have to be the owner of the weather station with the WeatherLink.com login credentials.

I use the feature for a few of my sensors, which I have send email notifications directly to me if the temperature on a specific sensor either drops below or rises above a certain parameter I have previously set. It is a great feature.

Knowing this, I'd say sadly if you are to go this route you have one of two options. Either you'll have to purchase and install a personal weather station yourself in your yard and set up a WeatherLink.com account for it (which means you'd have to buy a Davis weather station), or see if the weather station down the street from you is by chance a Davis that is uploading to the WeatherLink network, and if so, somehow reach out to the station owner to see if they can enter your phone number into their alerts panel and set the temp threshold to whatever you desire so that you get the desired notification when you want it. This latter option doesn't seem feasible though if you don't know this particular 'neighbor' well (because you'll be giving them your phone number, etc.).

Like I mentioned, it is a pretty neat feature that Davis offers through their WeatherLink online platform, but its definitely easiest to use when you own a Davis weather station and have it uploading to WeatherLink.com which will allow you to utilize this feature.

[danxx]

That is interesting. Thanks. But I guess what I'm saying is that, in principle, since this information is available free online, it ought to be straightforward to make an internet app that does precisely this. You enter the URL for the station you want to monitor, and it polls it regularly and offers alarms. That is, I can easily do this manually for free. What I can do manually can be automated. I'll offer a challenge to any app gurus.

[Central Maine Weather]

That would be a pretty neat feature/app for sure! I'm sure someone out there could figure out how to create such an app.