Amateur weather observation instruments

All day all night rain or shine images from the all-sky can be viewed on the TV captured on to a laptop or PC or streamed live over the Internet. Sometimes the transmissometers are also called telephotometers, transmittance meters, or hazemeters. It is used in meteorology as an additional tool of the weather forecast and the climatology for the purpose of long-term statistics of precipitation. However, smaller-scale structures, sometimes associated with high-impact severe weather, are occasionally observed e. The challenge frequently boils down to the simple fact that most amateur stations tend to be located in built-up urban areas where their owner lives. Amateur observations may also have a role in locally adjusting the output of model forecasts. These elements have not changed dramatically since the first weather observations were recorded.

The motivation for amateur meteorology Not only do automated readings provide amateur meteorologists with valuable meteorological data at their own specific location, but the data also has the potential to be of use to wider communities. Finding an ideal location to mount sensors and gauges is especially difficult when all the sensors are incorporated into one integrated unit. The spread of amateur stations on the other hand is, unsurprisingly, clustered around major conurbations, where their spatial density far exceeds the Met Office's network. The volume of water consumed becomes mm of water evaporated per unit of time. Figure 5 shows how temperatures recorded at amateur sites during daylight hours may be significantly higher than those at a nearby Met Office station, in this case by several degrees. Even for stations with separate wind sensors, the influence of the turbulent urban-boundary layer can present serious difficulties if the goal is to measure the mean wind direction and speed of the surrounding few kilometres Oke,

The benefit of selecting this particular period is that the clear and calm conditions would help highlight any shielding or ventilation issues associated with the amateur stations, although this is not to say that professional stations are immune to such effects Harrison, The "beehive" also rests at the standard 5 ft level. Siting wind instruments on a rooftop may raise them to a more suitable height but unless they are mounted on a pole with a length no less than the maximum width of the roof they will then be subject to the effect that the house itself has on the mean-wind flow Wieringa, Take, for example, the capacitive sensors found in many automated weather stations used to measure relative humidity.