New Weather Station

Ever since Deb and I rode out the big wind storm in August, we have both been thinking it would have been nice to actually know how hard the wind was blowing. Not the wind speed in Boise, or Kuna mind you, but exactly how hard was the wind blowing right here at the house. So when we saw the La Crosse WS-2308U Professional Weather Center at Costco for only $99 dollars, we grabbed it. Buying it turned out to be the simple part. As you can see the outside setup was a little involved. Getting the device to "talk" to the computer turned out to be the easiest part. After that it was time to get our system to upload all of this new collected data to the website Weather Underground.

The system consists of all the goodies in the photo above and a receiving station inside the house that wirelessly gathers data from the sensors located in the back yard. This receiving station is connected to the computer where software logs all of the data and stores it in a history file. While all of this is happening a second program also processes the weather information and uploads it to the web.

We actually have had the weather station for almost a month but lacked the time or will to do the big set up. Last week, another one of those "We haven't had a wind storm like that in years!" prompted us to drag the pieces out of the box and set it up. Oh no, we didn't do what your viewing in the photo above. You see I couldn't, it was 9:00pm at night, the wind was howling, so Deb sent me out onto the deck with some zip ties! After way too many trips out into the gale we could at least tell you the wind speed: 30-33 miles per hour sustained, and a 41 mph gust!

Well the station is up and running, and again just in time:

Special Weather Statement as of 1:35 PM PST on October 29, 2006

... Change of airmass bringing cold conditions Monday and Tuesday...

A cold front will move through southeast Oregon and southwest Idaho tonight bringing gusty winds and cold air in behind it. High temperatures will be 15 to 25 degrees colder on Monday than they were today. A chilly northwest wind behind the front will make it feel even colder. Winds diminish Monday night allowing temperatures to drop sharply. Low temperatures Tuesday morning will be the coldest so far this fall... With some locations in Baker County and the west central and Boise Mountains approaching record lows. After Tuesday temperatures will gradually moderate through the week.