Weather Equipment...
What to use for
home weather stations.

Have you ever wondered what kind of weather equipment you would need?

Stevenson Screen for holding thermometers

Suppose you were looking to buy weather stations,

portable weather stations or home weather stations. Then follow the connections on this page. The blue text above gives an introduction to how weather equipment might be used in research.

Here is a brief description of the more common instruments and supplies.

In the national weather service for instance, a barometer measures the barometric pressure. What is that? Air pressure is force per unit area, such as pounds per square inch. Every square inch. People who get barometric pressure headaches know what effects small pressure changes can create. Because every inch of their bodies is affected equally. Barometric pressure transducers exhibit the same sensitivity.

Ever wanted to build a barometer of your own? Have a look at these models: Barometer Design #1
Barometer Design #2
Barometer Design #3

Outdoor thermometers measure air temperature and give us numerical values in degrees. That is the degree of hotness or coldness you feel. Temperature recording weather equipment stores these numbers for us.

What about Humidity?

It's the amount of vaporized water in the air.

One way of expressing humidity is by measuring relative humidity. Learn about others here.

How do you measure Humidity? A Hygrometer. Also known as a psychrometer humidity meter. Temperature is shown on two thermometers. Then we can calculate and chart the dew point.

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How does wind energy work?

Wind moves objects around, and then we can use the motion to determine which way the air moves and how fast.

Research weather vanes and comparable kinetic motion toys point the direction of air flow. Wind speed instruments are called anemometers. By putting these two values together, we obtain a vector quantity. One that requires at least two inputs, speed and direction in this case. Wind data loggers record this information.

Next comes rain gauges - How much rain (or snow) did we get last night? What does this number mean?

Remote Sensing

Some devices let us look at weather conditions from far away. In preparing forecast information, weather services use these data sources along with figures from surface-based weather equipment.

Radiosonde - A combination of temperature and humidity recorders plus other instruments. They are placed in a box with a transmitter and locator to send weather information back to earth by radio signals. We attach the package to a weather balloon, let it fly and record these parameters at various elevations and even hundreds of miles downwind.

Weather Satellite - a vehicle high above the earth. We equip these ones with many cameras for taking satellite photos of the clouds below. Some satellite gadgets can see inside the clouds. These are the only machines that give us information from outside of the atmosphere.

Radar - (RAdio Detection And Ranging).

An electric system for sending and receiving radio waves microwaves, actually to find things. Used for finding military vehicles and artillery, obstacles and areas of precipitation.

Doppler Weather Radar - A radar that can also tell which way things are moving and how fast. Very useful for finding speeding cars and preparing an advisory - a severe weather forecast which helps storm chasers pinpoint tornadoes, tornados and other strong winds.

Pilots will also describe weather they encounter during their flights. The weather reports they view before takeoff cannot tell everything.

Want to see some official observations, made using scientific and electronic weather equipment? Look at a METAR.

This weather equipment is enough to even make Bill Nye's head spin. If you wish to keep updated on weather equipment, physical science articles and the science of meteorology, have a look at Blowin' in the Wind, a newsletter about the subject. You might read something interesting.