I guess that depends on your perspective. I have both stations running at my home. I could say that they are way different from each other because I only have to site one unit and it has a radiation shield whereas with the SKY+AIR I don’t have that luxury. On the other hand, some want to place the temperature measuring near ground level to get that value rather than possibly on their roof.
The RainCheck issues plague both units. Again I have both here and can see the difference. I also have a CoCoRaHS and have been reporting precipitation measurements and had my SKY well within reason to actual measurements, then a sensor died and I had to start all over again. Right now, my SKY is more accurate with rain measurements than my newest field test Tempest. The production Tempest hasn’t been up long enough to get it calibrated.
Due to advancements in technology, WeatherFlow has figured out how to reliably push a firmware update to the Tempest sensor device. This was too risky when the SKY and AIR were released. As such, the firmware had to be really good on the SKY and AIR before shipment so there weren’t a whole ton of devices that had to be replaced in the field. Given that the AIR firmware only went from v20 to v23 in two years is a testament to that. The Tempest, with the field updateable firmware, could be sent out to customers a little earlier knowing that if things were found wrong in the firmware that it could be updated in situ. That is why you are seeing this topic. There were bugs found in the firmware and they are now working on an update. In fact, as stated in post 23, v133 deployment was halted and a new firmware is being worked on and is in beta. All of this type of thing was done before shipment of the SKY, which you have, a rock solid piece of kit.
Why did I purchase a production version of the Tempest when I already had two SKY+Air stations? I like to live on the bleeding edge and love new tech, especially different ways of doing things. For my mobile station, I have to figure each time I get to my destination where I can place an Air unit for my outside measurements, with the Tempest I only have the one device. At home, I’m curious so I can now have wind measurements in more than one location, just pair the devices to the same hub or have two independent stations.