Any farmers out there?

Tempest Owners
1

Looking for feedback from farmers who may have used a Tempest weather station or wind meter to see how they compare with other devices.

2

I’ve used AcuRite and BIOS on my farm. I like that the Tempest does not need batteries changed and there are no moving parts on the anemometer. I’m not a fan of the humidex readings as the app will show 27C with a relative humidity of 72% will show a “feels like” temperature of 27 instead of 29.

3

Clay Jackson here in Prosser, WA - I’ve used an Accurite 5-n-1 and a SwitchDoc Labs WeatherRack 2 here with 3 acres of hay. So far, the Tempest is closest to my NIST traceable sling psychrometer and seems to agree with the Accurite on Wind Speed and Direction. Rain “gauge” is also close (.01 off my Accurite Tipping bucket at most). The SwitchDoc is definitely “hobbiest grade”. Rough calcs seem to match solar output against what my solar panels are generating. I’m pretty happy, although I do have to move the sensor so it’s above windblown spray from my field sprinklers, it’s so sensitive it can pick up just the “mist” from a sprinkler head about 45’ away.

1 Like
4

Clay,
Thanks for the info. You’re the first farmer to respond to my post. I live in Cape Charles, VA with the Chesapeake Bay in my backyard. I’m not a farmer but have spent a career in agribusiness, working with and for companies whose bottom-lines are totally dependent on weather. I’ve been talking with the folks at Tempest about creating a network of farmers’ field weather stations in order to alert other farmers of conditions that might affect their crops. Any interest?? JED

IMG_8603.jpg
IMG_8603.jpg480Ă—640 62.1 KB

1 Like
5

Thanks for the info. I live in Cape Charles, VA with the Chesapeake Bay in my backyard. I’m not a farmer but have spent a career in agribusiness, working with and for companies whose bottom-lines are totally dependent on weather. I’ve been talking with the folks at Tempest about creating a network of farmers’ field weather stations in order to alert other farmers of conditions that might affect their crops. Any interest?? JED

IMG_8603.jpg
IMG_8603.jpg480Ă—640 62.1 KB

6

Hi, JED - small world, I was born 70 years ago in Annapolis (Navy Junior :slight_smile: ). Interesting - we moved to Prosser from Western WA about 10 years ago, and I started putting local weather data from WeeWx on a website (www.n7qnm.net). I contributed a “Growing Degree Days” calculation to weewx and started showing that on my website. A few years ago, I had some hardware issues and my site was down for a week in early spring. A few days into the outage, a guy knocked on our door and introduced himself as the owner of an organic apple orchard about 1/4 mile down the road from us. Turns out he was using my growing degree days information to time his application of treatment for coddling moths. There’s apparently a very small temperature window in which they lay eggs, and if the organic treatment is applied at exactly the right time, it can be very effective. So, I got my station back up as soon as I could.

I hope to relocate my Tempest next week (after I get back from a trip for my “day job” as a Software Sales Engineer) and will let you know.

I’m absolute interested in contributing to Farm Weather data, and actually have another story about my attempts to do so that I can share privately.

1 Like
7

Clay,

Great to hear from you. What you have described is exactly what I’ve been looking to be able to do – but on a larger scale: advising farmers of conditions conducive to pest threats, etc. Let’s stay in touch. I’m curious to learn about some of your other attempts!

JED