Last week, looking around for a copy of the MST3K Amazing Colossal Episode Guide
Really, you’d think that for being a fan for over a decade and a half now, I would have picked this book up long ago. Sometimes good things really do come to those who wait. Or, more than likely, I’m just being rewarded for my laziness.
The Discovery Channel Weathertech STX7000 (a.k.a. the La Crosse Technology WS-8015) arrived today, much faster than I’d expected having used USPS Parcel Post. It’s actually much larger than I assumed it would be, and I’m impressed by the readability of the LCD at fairly long distances, even if lacking a built-in backlight. Setup was easy, and after calibrating the barometer and a couple of other settings, it was ready to go. Comparing early results to that of other local weather stations, the readings so far seem to correlate nicely and aren’t far off at all, if any.
Looks like the station arrived not a moment too soon, though, with Hurricane Dennis slowly trudging up through Alabama in the next couple of days. Inevitably, Atlanta will get its fair share of storms (rising in intensity daily) starting today and running through Monday or Tuesday.
I’m a sucker for the weather. Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a deep fascination with it. When The Weather Channel came about back in the 80s, I was glued to it for as long as my parents would allow (which, as an aside, also helped quite a bit when I was learning geography back in the day) and still it doesn’t take much to recall the old familiar jingles. So, it goes without saying that this guy’s site is weatherporn to me. Oh-so-beautiful weatherporn, indeed.
Since purchasing a decent weather station for my father-in-law on Father’s Day a few weeks ago, I’ve taken an renewed interest in obtaining a true-blue weather station—preferably a very scaled-down setup compared to the above guy, but full-featured enough for (at least) PC data transfers. XML feeds, data manipulation, and simply messing around for the sake of gadgetry… I guarantee it’ll be like Christmas whenever I finally find one within a sane price range (less than $200, preferably) that can spit out the raw data I need to get started.
Until then, I made a solid purchase of a lesser model—the Casio DQR-300 ($29.95 via eBay, MSRP $120.00) seen to the upper-left—though lacking many of the features of a Davis Vantage Pro, or even the mid- to upper-range models you’d see from La Crosse or Oregon Scientific. In short, it’s a beginner unit: atomic time, barometric pressure, 12/20-hour forecasting, indoor/outdoor temperature, and indoor/outdoor humidity measurement are the included features, sans any PC-link. This will suffice until I can drop the dough to get something more comprehensive.
Eventually, in reference to my NWS4Cast app, I’d like to combine the weather data (either NOAA, or that of a weather station in the future) with traffic feeds from Georgia Navigator into a customized version, which should paint a more accurate picture of the current state of affairs around our apartment. Right now I’m relying on NOAA’s XML feeds for my little NWS4Cast app, but given the propensity for KPDK to have differing conditions than my apartment, I’d certainly prefer using my own weather data.
Edit: I managed to find an even better deal on a more comprehensive model last night: a brand-new Discovery Channel Weathertech STX7000 (above, right) which features much more than the Casio, for 58% off the $199.95 retail price. Still no PC-link and it’s pretty much just a rebadged and price-hiked La Crosse, but it’s a great mid-range station to start out with and an ideal display to show everything at a glance. That said, I’ll probably throw the Casio up on eBay as soon as it gets here.
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