Home weather stations
Organised by what you want to know, rather than by brand.
Most buying guides list stations by price and count sensors. That is backwards: the useful question is which of your own questions a station will answer, and whether the sensor that answers it is any good.
We publish daily answers for 500 US cities from public data — the forecast half of the picture. A station covers the other half: your yard specifically, right now, at a resolution regional data cannot reach.
What each sensor answers
Barometer
Migraine →Air pressure, and more importantly its rate of change
The absolute reading is mostly a function of your elevation. What matters is how fast it moves — a drop of several hPa inside a few hours is the pattern migraine-sensitive people notice, and a station catches it hours before a regional forecast reflects it.
Anemometer
Kite Day →Wind speed and gusts
Airport wind readings come from a 10-metre mast on open ground. Your yard, ringed by houses and trees, can read less than half that — which is why a forecast can promise 12 mph on a day when nothing will fly.
Thermometer + hygrometer
Open Windows →Temperature and relative humidity
Ground-level cold pockets are invisible to a regional forecast. A low of 36°F at the airport routinely means frost in a low-lying garden, and only a sensor in that garden will tell you.
Rain gauge
Car Wash →Rainfall total and intensity
Summer storms are famously patchy — one side of town gets 20 mm and the other stays dry. A gauge settles it, and tells you whether the garden needs watering.
UV / solar radiation
Frost Date →Sunlight intensity
Usually an upgrade rather than a base sensor. Useful for gardeners tracking whether a bed gets the six hours a crop needs, and for anyone tracking burn risk.
The specs that change the readings
- Fan-aspirated radiation shield
- The single biggest accuracy difference between a cheap station and a good one. In direct sun, an unaspirated shield can read several degrees warm because the housing itself heats up. A small fan pulls ambient air across the sensor and largely removes that bias.
- Update interval
- Stations report anywhere from every couple of seconds to every few minutes. For temperature it barely matters. For wind gusts it matters a great deal — a station sampling every five minutes will simply miss the gust that took your kite down.
- Wireless range and line of sight
- Quoted ranges assume open air. Walls, foil-backed insulation and metal siding cut them sharply. If the mounting spot is across a yard and through an exterior wall, halve the number on the box.
- Data export or API access
- Decides whether your readings stay trapped in one app. If you want history, or to push data to a weather network, check that the station offers a real export or API rather than a phone app alone.
- Power and maintenance
- Solar with a battery backup avoids climbing to change cells each winter. Tipping-bucket rain gauges need clearing of debris, and anemometer bearings wear — moving parts are what eventually fail.
Placement beats price. A mid-range station in shade with clear air will out-report an expensive one bolted to a sunny south wall. Decide where it can actually go before deciding what to buy.
Common questions
Do I need a weather station if I can just check a forecast?
A forecast is modelled for a grid square that may be several miles across, and observations usually come from the nearest airport. That is fine for "will it rain today" and poor for wind in your yard, frost in your garden, or how much rain actually fell on your street. A station answers the local version of those questions.
Where should I put it?
Placement changes readings more than price does. The thermometer wants shade and free airflow, well away from walls, paving and roofs that radiate stored heat. The anemometer wants height and clear air — mounted low or beside the house it will read persistently low. The rain gauge wants a level, open spot away from overhang.
Is an expensive station more accurate?
Up to a point. Money buys a fan-aspirated shield, sturdier moving parts and faster sampling, all of which genuinely improve accuracy. Beyond that it mostly buys extra sensors. A well-sited mid-range station beats an expensive one mounted on a sunny wall.
What does a station tell me that this site does not?
We answer these questions for 500 cities from public data — which is right for planning and free. A station measures your specific yard, in real time, at the resolution public data cannot reach. The two complement each other: use the forecast to plan the week, the station to decide about tonight.
Meanwhile, the free version: check today’s conditions for your city.