General Discussion

[weathermaster]

I was sort of interesting in the weather then that big storm in January 2005 really boosted my interest in the weather since then I managed to set up a weather website and buy 2 weather stations.

[munrobaggins]

Being struck by lightning (well in the very, very close vicinity in aircraft) at least 5 times. Enough to make ones hair stand on end, to see the "ball" pass by once and to be deafened and shocked..   Wx can be exceedingly interesting, wherever one is.  It is a particularly fascinating hobby as we have the benefit in Scotland of seeing and experiencing examples of some pretty extreme Wx.   Mind you it has only been over the last few years that the internet, PC's and amateur Wx equipment has given us the capabilities we have today.  Enjoy and learn, that's what I say.

[Budgie]

With me it was part of my job.
When I started as a Coastguard the initial years training include a Met exam so I had learn the basic for that, plus the station I was based at was a Met Reporting Staton where we did 3-hourly Obs for the Met Office. As part of this I went on an Auxiliary Observer's Course at the Met Office training centre in Reading, a whole week of nothing but weather, what causes it, how to make an observation, tour of the Met Office (in Bracknall at the time) and a tour of their archive which included things like Mr Beaufort's original scale and the barograph paper from HMS Prince of Wales during it's encounter with the Bizmark!!

Moving up here and Stornoway Coastguard not being a reporting station, I lost a bit of interest in it but we were always asking "I wonder what the wind speed is?" so I got my WS2300 about 5 years ago and ran it for a few years before discovering WD in March 2007.   

[Tugmistress]

I work outside so i like to know brass monkeys i will feel that day lol
I think it was a case of before i moved up here i was working on hull docks and we had to quit work when the wind speed got to certain levels for safety reasons and i got fed up of the amount of time i would waste waiting around to see if we would work again that day so that's what started getting me interested. when i moved up here a year later to start working with the scrabster/stromness ferry the weather up here not only surprised me in a pleasant way but was even more important regarding whether the ferry would run/not run or how late it would be due to weather conditions. i started off by learning to read the charts and got to a reasonable competance with that (got a bit of a reputation now for being better than the bbc and itv forecasts for up here on our community website) and decided i would like to get a weather station of my own because the reporting station up here at wick (only 25 miles away) may as well be on another planet most days! the only reason i can fathom for this is that is based on the north sea coast whereas i am on the atlantic ocean coast complete with partial gulf stream effects lol probably totally wrong but that's my theory lol.
now it's a case of the lads at work will say they've seen a bad forecast on the telly for the area then they'll come and ask me what's really going to happen

[skyewright]

"I wonder what the wind speed is?"

Aside from a general interest over the years, that phase was probably a major trigger here.

I'd fancied an electronic personal weather station of my own since I first spotted them start to appear years ago (I think I recall seeing one advertised as much as 15 years ago?), but the cost always seemed to rule it out, especially when looking at things like the Davis. Around this time last year while looking for something entirely different I happened to notice that the supplier also did weather stations. I spotted the OS WMR100 which looked very affordable. I wanted one. I then spotted the WMR200. Double the price, but the datalogging capability was what swung it - if only I'd know the effort that was going to be involved over the next few months in helping get the software that reads from the data logger working right I might never have bought it! A year later, I only use the datalogger part of the WMR200 as a fall back resource (I mainly use a different logging device instead), I am starting to head towards 1-wire based gear for greater control and flexibility, and I've spent at least the equivalent of buying a Davis!
No regrets. 

the reporting station up here at wick (only 25 miles away) may as well be on another planet most days!

Similar here.
The 'local' station is at Lusa, only about 14 miles as the crow flies, but at sea level, on the opposite coast, and with a mature conifer plantation starting only 100m due South on slightly higher, and rising, ground.

Last time I went past, parts of that plantation were being felled. Presumably if felling gets as far as the weather station it will affect their readings? I know the people who do the daily manual readings at the station, if I remember I'll ask them about it.

[munrobaggins]

Perhaps the 1947 blizzards had something to do with it too...apparently I asked why there was bread coming from the sky!!

[masseyjim]

I work out side aswell and it important to know how cold , wet , or blown away i am going to be . working in horticulture the plants respond to temperature changes , light , etc.and sprays may only be used in light wind conditions .  its quite interesting how some of the trees in my care have changed in the last 30 years in when leaves drop and buds burst with the changes due to ?? global warming ?

[scanman]

Difficult to say exactly what or when..... I do remember, during the Summer of 1976, getting some superb thunder storms around bed-time which I used to listen to and peep out of the window to watch. So there may be a sign of an early interest then. I also had a superb geography teacher, named Graeme Simpson who hailed from Buckie, who was inspirational. Coupled with the fact that I used to live yards from the end of the runway at RAF Gutersloh in Germany when my dad was stationed there, I had easy access to the met office there. The guys there were also really encouraging, including the late great Bert Foord.

In short, the weather has always been of interest for almost as long as I can remember, but I think the enthusiasm of peeps I have met on the way has rubbed off too! 

[Shetland Coastie]

Always been fascinated really even when I was a kid living in Kincardineshire and getting loads of days off school because of bad snow! It then got rekindled when I joined the Coastguard some 3 and a bit years ago as, as Budgie points out, we have to study some Met as obviously it can seriously affect what we do! Shortly after that I joined Netweather and also got a WS2310 weather station and it really mushroomed from there!