If you are thinking about getting a weather station for Christmas, here are a few options available on Amazon.
The first thing to know is that they come in several different varieties.
You can start with a basic backyard weather station that reports temperature, humidity and barometric pressure to a console or display that sits in your house. This is the type easily found at Canadian Tire.
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You can up your game a little bit and get a station that also does wind and rainfall.
The next step up from this is to get a station that not only reports all these measurements but is also able to connect to the internet, which will allow you to access your data from anywhere.
As you may know from my past columns, I have been an avid proponent of Davis weather stations, but when my last Davis station wore out, I replaced it with an Ambient Weather station.
I did this because of cost. I was able to get a very good station for around $700, which included extra sensors such as soil moisture and soil temperature. This compares to the equivalent Davis station that now costs well north of $1,500 for the same type of set-up.
Not too long after receiving that Ambient station, I noticed on Amazon that a weather station under the brand name of Ecowitt was selling what looked to be nearly the exact same station. This led me to conclude that Ecowitt, or some other parent company, was making the Ambient weather stations.
If you search on Amazon for weather stations, you will find all sorts of different brands, and I have no way of knowing how good or bad they are, but I feel fairly confident commenting on the Ecowitt stations.
The Ecowitt HP2553 Wi-Fi weather station looks exactly like the one I have from Ambient Weather. It comes with a nice colour indoor display, ultrasonic anemometer (wind speed and direction), self-emptying rain gauge, outdoor and indoor temperature and humidity.
As the name implies, it can connect to your wi-fi and upload the data to Ecowitt’s hosting site, which will allow you to view your data from anywhere.
All this comes for the low price of $399.99, with free shipping if you have Prime. You can also get additional sensors. Heck, you can even get a lightning detector for $62.
Next up is the Ecowitt HP2551 Wi-Fi weather station, and it has the same features as the previous one. However, instead of the ultrasonic anemometer, it uses the good old-fashioned wind cups and wind vane. This station also has a UV detector.
The price on this one is $299.99. If you look on Amazon, you will see there are a few other Ecowitt weather stations you can choose from with slightly different price points.
One interesting station that Ecowitt offers is the Ecowitt Wittboy. It measures all the usual things, plus UV, but for rainfall, it uses a haptic rain sensor. This works by detecting the vibrations of rain hitting it. They are supposed to be quite accurate, but I have never used one to verify that.
Another thing that is different with this station is that you do not have an indoor console or display. Instead, a hub collects the data and sends it to the Ecowitt servers, allowing you to access your data online: your phone, computer, what have you. At first this might seem a little strange, but I must admit I rarely look at my display.
This station costs $249.99.
Daniel Bezte is a teacher by profession with a BA in geography, specializing in climatology, from the University of Winnipeg. He operates a computerized weather station near Birds Hill Park, Man. Contact him at dmgbezte@gmail.com.
