Long before I moved to what is now the island compound, I installed an outdoor weather monitoring station. Partly, I just wanted to feel closer to what was destined to become my new home. Mostly I wanted to start getting solar radiation measurements in order to properly provision my future solar panels.
I didn’t yet have any serious tools at the island place and didn’t want to put a lot of effort into locating it when I wasn’t sure what changes we were going to make. One thing I was sure of, though, is that some old TV and internet satellite dishes weren’t going to be needed. They were eyesores, so I removed them.
One of the dishes was mounted to the deck railing. The other was on a dedicated pole set in concrete in the ground. The view was much better with the dishes removed, and lacking other options I re-purposed the pole to hold the weather station.
That worked well for sun and even rain measurements, but the location was well sheltered by vegetation so the wind readings were quite attenuated. It also still put the weather station close in the view off our back deck, though it wasn’t nearly as annoying as a satellite dish. So, basically, it worked and was only temporary.
There’s nothing so permanent as a temporary fix.
The weather station stayed where it was until a few days ago, when the Hired Hand finally removed the post to make room for our nascent pavilion. I realized that the range of the weather station radio was much greater than I had assumed and that I could mount it near some other infrastructure — the solar panel array — where it wouldn’t be marring any natural beauty but would be far away from trees and bushes that could affect the readings.
Despite the problems I’ve had with the weather station, I do find it nice to be able to keep tabs on things weather-wise.
—2p