How does the tv/computer one work? Particularly if it's hooked to a tv. Do you set it for a certain channel or something? Can it be controlled with a remote?

By the way, if you're curious, this is what the TV output looks like (less the stuff in the top left that was added by my capture software).

Well, I decided to pick this up the last time woot had it on except without the weather tv monitor thing and, honestly, if you can afford it, if you really want a decent accurate system and you can afford to hold off and buy a better quality system, I suggest you do it.

Also, the good old fashioned instruments such as a cylindrical rain gauge are still far superior to some of the lower grade prcip. digital gauges. Sometimes they can be off by more than half an inch in some cases.

Also considering the outdoor thermometer gauge is made of dark colored plastic for some odd reason, if it's in direct sunlight at all it will not give an accurate reading. Considering the rain gauge needs to be completely out in the open to work right, I don't think many people have the place to put this thing. (what with having to connect the two...) Unless you get yourself a true white lattice thermometer container, at which point I'd say, spend more money on a better system in the first place if you can afford the box. :P




Who am I to say all this? Well, I'm a Meteorology undergrad. Weather is kinda my thing =)

WOOTSUPPP!! wrote:Sounds great, but it is missing some vital parts that the Weather lady on channel 9 has.

You're from the Denver area too?!

Nice.

from terrific Wisconsin

bridog6996 wrote:How does the tv/computer one work? Particularly if it's hooked to a tv. Do you set it for a certain channel or something? Can it be controlled with a remote?

There is a composite (yellow RCA plug) out, that goes into the VIDEO IN port on almost any modern TV.

For my family, this is a great idea. My two kids and I survived a tornado on May 8th of this year. We were at school (I teach) and we had about 30 seconds warning before it hit. Luckily we all survived but it was a very traumatic event that destroyed over half of our school. Now, every time it thunders, my children want to watch the weather on TV but there is no television coverage for "thunder." We end up in the basement out of fear. So, long story short, I think this will help eliminate some of our fears of another tornado every time it thunders!

mdwyerfoo wrote:By the way, if you're curious, this is what the TV output looks like (less the stuff in the top left that was added by my capture software).

Cool, this was the TV/computer one? Been drinking but will check tomorrow, will it keep track of the weather so that you can compare data from different times of the year (assuming you use it for years)?

drack wrote:For my family, this is a great idea. My two kids and I survived a tornado on May 8th of this year. We were at school (I teach) and we had about 30 seconds warning before it hit. Luckily we all survived but it was a very traumatic event that destroyed over half of our school. Now, every time it thunders, my children want to watch the weather on TV but there is no television coverage for "thunder." We end up in the basement out of fear. So, long story short, I think this will help eliminate some of our fears of another tornado every time it thunders!

Try a NOAA weather radio too. If you buy a certain kind they'll sound an alarm if anything severe approaches your area. It's helpful to distinguish between when it's just thunder or thunder associated with something bigger. best wishes!

xtinaftw wrote:Don't people in rural areas like that predict the weather by instinct? They can feel the rain coming!

Actually I can smell rain about 15 minutes before it starts. No joke.

caffeine_dude wrote:Cool, this was the TV/computer one? Been drinking but will check tomorrow, will it keep track of the weather so that you can compare data from different times of the year (assuming you use it for years)?

That's the TV interface of the TV/Computer version. The only tracking it does is trending on the barometer. To do any more trending, you have to plug it into your computer. I'd never done that.

md1088 wrote:Try a NOAA weather radio. If you buy a certain kind they'll sound an alarm if anything severe approaches your area. It's helpful to distinguish between when it's just thunder or thunder associated with something bigger.

I agree i have a reecom r-1650 I have programmed it to only alarm when a tornado warning is in my county, it can do multiple counties or warnings and watches, but I only care about Tornado warnings.

mdwyerfoo wrote:That's the TV interface of the TV/Computer version. The only tracking it does is trending on the barometer. To do any more trending, you have to plug it into your computer. I'd never done that.

I am interested does it come with software for tracking?

drack wrote: My two kids and I survived a tornado on May 8th of this year. Now, every time it thunders, my children want to watch the weather on TV but there is no television coverage for "thunder." We end up in the basement out of fear. So, long story short, I think this will help eliminate some of our fears of another tornado every time it thunders!

As someone else said, get a NOAA All Hazards radio, instead. You'll pay about $30 for a Midland WR100B, and you might find one in your local grocery store. They set off an alarm where severe weather is coming. When the weather is normal, you can still turn it on whenever you want for a weather report.

The thing that Woot is selling isn't going to help your state of mind, nor your safety.

doc606 wrote:i really wanted to buy one of these...i went to amazon.com and read the reviews of present owners.......no sale...not for $10, not for free shipping....not for nothing, especially finding out that radio shack has sold these.... reviews are one star out of five, one star being the lowest...buyer beware. this item will stop a wootoff dead in its tracks.

http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Home-Weather-Stations/product-reviews/B000YHAGXA/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

2 people have reviewed it on amazon. In my opinion thats not enough to be reliable.

md1088 wrote:Try a NOAA weather radio. If you buy a certain kind they'll sound an alarm if anything severe approaches your area. It's helpful to distinguish between when it's just thunder or thunder associated with something bigger.

At school, we were listening to a weather radio with alarms. All tornado warnings had been called off. The thirty second warning was a big branch that hit my classroom window before the big tree fell on my classroom. We made it out of the classroom and into a hallway before the gym blew away. Then we ran to a storage room where we were trapped for hours before the firemen could get to us. There was a wooden beam from the gym that was stuck through the roof right over us. How it did not penetrate the tile ceiling above us is beyond me. While I appreciate your suggestion, I'm not sure anything could have warned us better than that big branch!

I've found similar items under the National Geographic name.

http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Home-Weather-Station/dp/B000SAM6NG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A18S2VA36NY5VY&s=sporting-goods&qid=1248499373&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Home-Weather-Stations/dp/B000YHAGXA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=A18S2VA36NY5VY&s=sporting-goods&qid=1248499373&sr=1-2

caffeine_dude wrote:I am interested does it come with software for tracking?

It does come with tracking software, but I have never tried it. Linux users might have luck with the thermorbios953w project, which I have also not yet tried.

partzispartz wrote:What's the highest wind velocity this thing can take before it flies apart? Can it handle tornado or hurricane winds? Or maybe even just the wind from my neighbor's cows?

If that. I think it peaks at 45mph or something like that. That's not terribly impressive, but, decent for being 100% plastic I guess.

No OUTDOOR Relative Humidity?? Bah!!

So how are you supposed to know if it's dry enough outside to shut off the A/C and open up the windows, or if you'd be letting in the tropics?

Pretty glaring omission, IMHO.

I live in CA. I don't think I need one of these. I look out my window "Hmm, it's sunny, it's hot" good enough.

drack wrote:At school, we were listening to a weather radio with alarms. All tornado warnings had been called off. The thirty second warning was a big branch that hit my classroom window before the big tree fell on my classroom. We made it out of the classroom and into a hallway before the gym blew away. Then we ran to a storage room where we were trapped for hours before the firemen could get to us. There was a wooden beam from the gym that was stuck through the roof right over us. How it did not penetrate the tile ceiling above us is beyond me. While I appreciate your suggestion, I'm not sure anything could have warned us better than that big branch!

Thank goodness you are all ok, I decided to get my weather radio when our town had a very, very strong wind that woke me up, I turned on the radio and no warnings I logged on the computer, as I was doing so I heard the sirens outside, since then all weather keep me awake, now the radio lets me sleep.

parabolic wrote:I think my dad would love one of these.

The weather is my dad's #1 choice of conversation so i was thinking he might want one too...just not sure if it really does anything worthy of buying it for him....

drack wrote:At school, we were listening to a weather radio with alarms. All tornado warnings had been called off. The thirty second warning was a big branch that hit my classroom window before the big tree fell on my classroom. We made it out of the classroom and into a hallway before the gym blew away. Then we ran to a storage room where we were trapped for hours before the firemen could get to us. There was a wooden beam from the gym that was stuck through the roof right over us. How it did not penetrate the tile ceiling above us is beyond me. While I appreciate your suggestion, I'm not sure anything could have warned us better than that big branch!

Wow. Well, as part the next generation tracking these things, I hope we get better at predicting. It's incredibly difficult though, unfortunately. But, good thing you guys seem very prepared once you know something, which is awesome.

caffeine_dude wrote:Thank goodness you are all ok, I decided to get my weather radio when our town had a very, very strong wind that woke me up, I turned on the radio and no warnings I logged on the computer, as I was doing so I heard the sirens outside, since then all weather keep me awake, now the radio lets me sleep.

Thank you. I'm still debating about buying this or a weather radio or anything at all. I'm the same way. The weather keeps me awake a lot!

doc606 wrote:i really wanted to buy one of these...i went to amazon.com and read the reviews of present owners.......no sale...not for $10, not for free shipping....not for nothing, especially finding out that radio shack has sold these.... reviews are one star out of five, one star being the lowest...buyer beware. this item will stop a wootoff dead in its tracks.

I wanted one, but I got kind of iffy regarding the stated accuracy of +- 2°C/4°F.

Weissensteinburg wrote:It forecasts for the next 12 hours? I think that's awesome, especially for people in rural areas without good local coverage, or on mountains where the weather is a lot less uniform throughout an area.

"Forecast" is a pretty strong word. It bases its forecast off the barometer trend. If the pressure's going down, it puts up a "Stormy" icon. If the pressure's going up, it put up a "Sunny" icon. When you first turn it on, it thinks it is partly cloudy until it gets something like a full day's worth of barometer readings.

md1088 wrote:Wow. Well, as part the next generation tracking these things, I hope we get better at predicting. It's incredibly difficult though, unfortunately. But, good thing you guys seem very prepared once you know something, which is awesome.

I appreciate that and I do know it is difficult to predict anything like that. The weather changed so quickly that day. We were very fortunate and blessed that we all survived and we will actually get to start school again in August!

If I get one of these will it rain here in central Texas? We're dying down here, folks. Send us any extra rain you got, please!

I hope woot does not foobar this!

Going to Thermor's website, the BW935 is the TV/PC and they do not even have a BW990 listed. To be exact I can't find the BW990 any place and can find the BW935 TV/PC places..

Does not come with a hot weather lady, bah!

I bought the Home Monitor unit when it was last offered. Try as I may, I could not get it to work right. The temperature readings were never even close both indoors and outdoors. Humidity readings were always off. About the only thing that worked somewhat correctly was the wind gauge.

Fortuantely Woot took it back without question and refunded my money. Buyer beware.

prateeko wrote:I'll ask because I'm honestly curious:

Will this work with a Mac?

I've been researching this and the closest I found was this:

http://dgwilson.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/bios-weather-station-bw976-update/

but that is for a different model of station, made by the same manufacture. If I could find out for sure, I'd be in for the PC/TV version. It will do until I have $$$ to spend on a $2000 professional quality station [I'm in the middle of a rain forest in western NC, so I would want the station to broadcast to wunderground.com to help other locals out too].

/vjl/

drack wrote:While I appreciate your suggestion, I'm not sure anything could have warned us better than that big branch!

NOAA Weather Radios are great for getting severe weather watches, and warnings for approaching severe t-storms. Tornadoes are still so unpredictable that a false sense of security may be all you're getting. Case in point: Four years ago, I just happened to look out the front door after dinner when I saw major rotation in the clouds a half-mile to the west. I called the sheriff's office to report it and was told that the spotters had just been called. Eight minutes later, the tornado touched down five miles to the east of us. Six minutes after that, our weather radio went off.

No severe weather had been expected that day, and the sky had been clear, except for that one freak ten-mile-wide cell.

if you just go to wunderground.com you can find readings for all this stuff from someone in your neighborhood online.

bradcrc wrote:if you just go to wunderground.com you can find readings for all this stuff from someone in your neighborhood online.

How do you think your neighbors collect their weather data? Thru home weather stations like this, mostly. Anyway, my nearest weather station "neighbor" is a school located a few miles away and in a slightly different micro-clime, so their readings are not always going to accurately reflect my local conditions.

Anyway, my main point is that at a certain point, a person's interest might grow from checking data from local weather stations to wanting to contribute data. Science is not strictly for professionals.

I purchased the home monitor version the last time they had this available. The LCD display is hard to read unless it is eye level and straight on. Mount it just above your head and you can not read it.

Further it has no reset button, oh the button hole is there but it's filled in with a blank plug. So if something happens to the sync between the transmitter (outside) and the receiver/home monitor (inside) you have to go outside and remove the batteries to get it to reset and connect again.

Mine home monitor LCD is in my kitchen on the wall and has been showing the outside temperature of 110 since the last time I was able to get it to connect to the outside units, about a month ago. It's a complete POS and you shouldn't waste your money.

When I contacted woot to return it they told me to contact the manufacturer for a replacement. When I get more time I'm going to try and hook it up the monitor via a telephone cable and see if I can get it to work again. If so I'm going to use an old laptop and hook up the USB connection of the home/monitor to be able to upload data to weather underground.

Did I mention this is a POS? It is. Don't buy one of these unless you've seen in in person.

When I noticed the PC/TV version I was tempted for a moment to order it and give my current one to a friend. But then I like my friend and don't want to waste another $50 on another version of scaffolding.

Given how accurate this thing claims to be ( +/- 2 deg C !!! ) please please PLEASE dont get this thing and hook it into wunderground.

Temperature is one of the easiest things to measure accurately. You can get cheap digital thermos from china for $2 each, and they're accurate to +/- .5 (they claim .2 but I tested to .5 or less). +/- 2 is HORRIBLE.

Take it from a storm chaser, you dont want one of these on your car. I take golfball to baseball sized hail almost every chase, it wont last long.

shollingworth wrote:Horrible Amazon reviews.

All ONE of them on Amazon.com is "bad". Anything comparable is double, triple the $$. Live large. . . take a chance if you have an interest in this stuff.