Weather Station for Big Weather Nerds Now Measures Snow

Weather buffs, rejoice! One of the best weather stations on the planet just got better. WeatherHawk has added snow to the conditions that can be monitored -- in addition to temperature, wind, rain, humidity and all the other things that weather nerds watch.

WeatherHawk is arguably the leader in integration-friendly weather stations that can tie into home automation systems -- like, let me sleep in if it’s raining; alert me when the wind conditions are perfect for sailing; or adjust the indoor thermostats and humidifiers depending on the relative humidity.

And now: start the snow-melt machines at the cabin when the perfect storm of weather conditions occurs.

The snow-sensing Doppler radar is new to WeatherHawk’s 600 Series weather stations. Snow has always been a tricky thing to monitor, at least in a product priced for consumers -- enthusiast consumers to be sure. The product retails for about $7,500.

WeatherHawk division manager John Johnston cautions that the system measures snowfall, not snow depth.

“As snow falls and builds up,” he says, “the depth is a function of the flake packing density and air temperature, so the system cannot really be used as a snow depth indicator.”

The system can actually help users save money if they have exterior heating systems for walkways, driveways, rooftops and elsewhere, Johnston explains: “They don’t want to waste energy operating those unless they actually have snow, and the presence of snow has always been difficult to determine without a visual sensor.”

When tied into an automation system, a melting device can be programmed, for example, to ignore modest snowfall if the temperature is rising.

For supreme weather nerds, here’s how the sensor manufacturer explains the technology:

The Doppler radar included in the WeatherHawk 600 Series weather station functions by transmitting a 24gHz radar signal vertically from a 10m dome around the sensor. The sensor is able to count the number of drops in the span while it measures the diameter of each drop. The raw data is collected, processed within the sensor, and output as precipitation quantity (ex. in) and intensity (in/hr). The precipitation type is calculated by a quantitative algorithm programmed into the sensor that observes the drop size diameter and fall rate. Using this technique, the WS600 can tell the difference between rain and snow.

WeatherHawk has drivers for most of the most popular home-control systems including AMX, Crestron, Vantage Controls, Savant Systems and now Control4.

At CEDIA Expo 2011, Control4 developer Extra Vegetables showcased its brand new interface (available in the 4Store) for the WeatherHawk stations.

Simon Scotland from Extra Vegetables didn’t expect the application to be a big seller, but “sometimes in life you do just have to go with what's cool and interesting.”

In any case, he says, “We've sold more in a couple of weeks than I expected. We did have a couple of people at the show say that that they had customers with them [WeatherHawk stations] and they went back to the office and purchased the driver.”

WeatherHawk also offers an iPhone/iPad app that supports other IP communicating control systems.


Control4 driver for WeatherHawk 600 Series Weather Station, developed by Extra Vegetables