Leighbugs wrote:Glacier, I definitely think the tall trees in my backyard interfere with wind readings. Either that or I really do live in a calm spot for winds. My top gust so far is 23km/hr which surprised me because on one of the arctic outflow days those trees were swaying like crazy and I figured it would be much higher. My husband says he can move the anemometer up higher onto the roof of the house rather than the top of the deck cover. It was just too dangerous with the snow and ice to climb up there. I wanted the rain gauge somewhere where I could get at it fairly easily myself to clear out any blockages from leaves and debris.
Ideally, the best spot for sensors for a weather station are as far away from trees and structures as possible. Of course, that's usually not possible in an urban environment so you just need to do the best that you can.
If you take a look at how I mounted my anemometer (page 1 of this thread) I got it up about 12' from the peak of the roof. I would have mounted it higher, but I didn't want to use cable stays and the flex in the PVC would have been too great. Although metal tubing would be more rigid, I used PVC as it is an electrical insulator. Since there is still some copper wire between the sensor and the junction box (mounted to the radiation shield below), it was grounded with a long length of heavy gauge copper wire.
This PDF has some pretty decent recommendations for mounting sensors in an urban setting. Basically, we all do the best we can in our individual situations.
http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/CWOP-Siting.pdf