The Weather Observer's Handbook

Abstract

The Weather Observer's Handbook provides a comprehensive, practical and independent guide to all aspects of making weather observations. Automatic weather stations today form the mainstay of both amateur and professional weather observing networks around the world and yet – prior to this book – there existed no independent guide to their selection and use. Traditional and modern weather instruments are covered, including how best to choose and to site a weather station, how to get the best out of your equipment, how to store and analyse your records and how to share your observations with other people and across the Internet. From amateur observers looking for help in choosing their first weather instruments on a tight budget to professional observers looking for a comprehensive and up-to-date guide covering World Meteorological Organization recommendations on observing methods and practices, all will welcome this handbook.

How good are citizen weather stations? Addressing a biased opinion

“…The Met Office instruments installed at the site include a platinum resistance thermometer (PRT) and a Rotronic Hydroclip, both mounted within a passively ventilated Stevenson screen, a Munro R100 series 0.2 mm tipping‐bucket rain gauge and a Kipp and Zonen CMP11 pyranometer. The PRTs offer greater accuracy along with a more stable calibration in comparison with thermistors (Burt, ): all seven CWS we tested use thermistors. Henceforth these reference Met Office instruments will be referred to simply as ‘MMS’.…”

Analysis of simultaneous time series of indoor, outdoor and soil air radon concentrations, meteorological and seismic data

“…The instrument for atmospheric radon is placed about 1.5 m above ground in the weather station box (Stevenson screen type) [2]. The indoor radon concentration is measured in a small storage room (6.94 m³) located in the basement of one research building, in the triangular or wedge-shaped void space at the bottom below a staircase.…”

Measuring Rainfall and Wind-Borne Droplets

“…In meteorology, precipitation gauges (UK Meteorological Office, 1981;WMO, 1984WMO, , 1986WMO, , 2008aWMO, , 2008bMichaelides, 2008;Srivastava, 2008;Burt, 2012) are used to monitor the total precipitation amount over a given time or to monitor the intensity, i.e. the instantaneous precipitation rate.…”