My station should be arriving today, it will replace my ageing Davis Station. Reading here and the attached document and it talks about “different” mounting heights for the “different” collecting sensors. Since this is an all in one unit, is 10 meters above the ground going to be ideal for this unit?
Welcome to the Weatherflow community ,
All depends what is around it and what is most important to you.
Better have it 10 meters hight and have open sky and wind than near a house.
According weather siting rules temperature should be lower but since the Tempest will take several parameters to compensate … just be careful for vibrations that could creep up the pole.
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Optimize to what matters the most to you. If you care most about wind, go high. If you care most about temperature and humidity, go low in the middle of a clear grassy area. There’s no wrong answer.
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I plan on replacing my Davis station with the Tempest and it is on a 8 ft pole attached to the gable of my house, its a single story house so roughly 16’ to the peek, then another 8 ft above that. Is the plan, nothing within 100 ft distance to that height close by. Some trees in the area, but like I said nothing within a 100 ft or more to where the station is to be mounted.
If you have been happy with the data from that location then put the Tempest in the same location. You can always move it later.
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Subject: Wind gradient and height of Tempest
The wind speed is most important to me so I installed my Sky 12m above ground on top of my house. But the surrounding houses slow the wind causing a large wind gradient. Here are comparisons of 3 Skys during the same reasonably constant wind. What I see very clearly is the difference in the average and maximum speeds at the different heights. This first Sky is located about 1m (3ft) above ground in a tiny clearing to measure rainfall surrounded by trees. (Its direction is not facing North, thats another story if you need to know why)
This next Sky is mounted in a tree which seems to be a very solid mount with the wind coming from the direction this photo is looking towards. Its height above ground is effectively reduced by the flatish house up wind.
This Sky is high above the house about 12m above ground:
And as you can see I am also on top of a rounded hill which effectively increases the height and compresses the wind gradient. When I say ‘compresses the wind gradient’ I mean that the wind flowing over a rounded hill will have a compression layer where the wind can be stronger than the wind near the ground and stronger than the higher wind above which is not being compressed.
For more info see this solved topic:
https://community.tempest.earth/t/wind-speed-seems-to-be-reading-low-solved-in-firmware-v103/1510/17
cheers Ian
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Hi community. We’ve had our new Tempest for just over a fortnight now and are extremely happy with it and all its features. Currently mounted on our pergola on our North side of our house ( Southern Hemisphere). My regular monitoring of a nearby fellow Tempest owners installation shows his unit is showing a truer reading of wind direction and strength when combined with our local airports similar readings. My question to others in the community is how did you reconcile your need for, or desire for, your micro climate weather data versus what is happening on the greater area around you.
Main issue to us is wind.
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Hi Stephen and welcome 
We have had a few topics discussing this question.
If you read the topic I am moving your question to and if you search for more topics involving height for accurate wind readings you will see many responses.
cheers Ian
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I installed my SKY (first generation, before Tempest) on the roof of my house. When I started field field testing, I put one on the same post as my CoCoRaHS manual rain gauge. More recently, I decided I wanted a cleaner wind fetch so I installed a post in the field by my house with a Tempest on top. The Tempest is at ~3m (9.5 ft) and has a relatively clear wind fetch in the directions the wind usually comes from.
In the end, you just need to decide what you want most. You might just leave your Tempest where it is or move it to a place where it measures “your” wind since you can use the airport wind for the general area.
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I’d agree with this. There’s a standard for recording accurate wind data - 10m/33’ above the highest thing for 500’ in any direction, or something like that. But, I’m not collecting certified weather data for forecasting, I want to know the weather at my house, so my existing Vantage Pro is on the roof about 1m/3’ above the peak. I have trees at least 3m/10’ higher than that on three sides and no more than 200’ away, and on the fourth side is my neighbor, his trees and a hill behind that. The Tempest will go on the same pole once winter snow goes away and I can get up there.
Thing is, I don’t care if it’s not “right” - I’m getting readings for wind/weather where I am with what I have, as accurately as practical. If there’s 50kt gusts over the treetops that’s not my problem - if there’s 50kt gusts hammering my yard then I know about it.
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Hi and Thanks TomHogland and Gizmoev. You’ve reinforced my gut feeling. To be perfectly honest, after reading through posts on this great community, there will always be compromises to wind data in built up residential areas. Our neighborhood has houses that are 10-15 metres from boundary lines where if it’s not their roofs deflecting and buffering wind then it will be trees etc. So I will measure my yards micro climate as far as wind speed and direction is. The Tempest’s reading of humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall etc is right on the money. Thanks all. Who knows I may get another Tempest to mount elsewhere 
!
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I’d agree with that statement except for the rainfall part 
Hi community. I’ve had made an alloy mount for our tempest. Initially it was mounted directly to our pergola but wanted a more accurate reading of our wind direction and speed. I bought the basic mount but it had too much flex in it when wind speeds got up to 20 knots and indicated rain when there’s was none. Based on the basic mount from weather flow I had this fabricated locally with an extra 100mm added. We have yet to the winds of 20 knots again since manufacture but am rapt with readings so far. It’s the start of our Autumn down under and traditionally would expect 3 weeks of unsettled weather and strong winds but no we are predicting 25c tomorrow and currently 22c. Drought conditions prevail in our province when frequent rains keep our grass green. Take care all out there.
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looks good. Make sure the pergola itself isn’t causing the vibrations in high wind.
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This video of a burning wind turbine places a smoke stream vertically into the wind which is then blown at different speeds downwind at different heights above the ground. Which creates a visual demonstration of the wind gradient.
cheers Ian
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Hope NO one’s Tempest ever has that happen to it!
I wouldn’t be surprised if the effect in the range below 10m would be a lot bigger. But it is a cool video anyway.