Know which way the wind blows

Tired of TV “weather personalities” who wouldn’t know a barometer from a bar stool? Want to know, without the aid of Doppler radar, what the weather really is like in your backyard?

Well, as Bob Dylan sang in the ‘60s, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Who knew that the rock legend was foreshadowing the popularity of home weather stations?

Today’s weather instruments are a far cry from the big plastic thermometer nailed to a tree in the backyard. Sensors set up around your property can now transmit information -- either via cables or wirelessly -- to a display console inside your home. Transmitting as often as every two to three seconds, these sensors give readings on temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, humidity, precipitation, windchill, dew point and heat index. The more sophisticated -- and pricier -- ones even offer on-screen forecasting.

Connect the system to your personal computer and you can develop a weather database for your home. And you can buy software that lets you post and share data on the Internet.

Aside from being “a lot of fun,” home systems have been a boon to scientists, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge.

The common wisdom that Southern California has no weather isn’t true, he said. In fact, the Los Angeles Basin has a tremendous diversity of microclimates. Scientists take advantage of home weather stations to supplement their own data-gathering efforts.

That expertise has come in handy this year, with the Southland experiencing wild swings in weather -- from record rainfall one week to unseasonably warm temperatures the next. Home stations in central Los Angeles, for example, may have recorded 5 inches of rain, Patzert said, while ones in the foothills saw 15 inches or more.

“There are a staggering number of people interested in weather,” Patzert said, and many of their observations are “really of scientific quality.”

Kurt Antonius, an executive with American Honda, has two weather stations -- one at his Redondo Beach home, another on his boat.

“I grew up in the Midwest,” he said, “and I’ve just always been interested in the weather.”

For his home system, Antonius has a Peet Bros. station connected to his computer. Purchased about 10 years ago, it features components that are wired to a central control unit.

Looking for a newer system for his boat, Antonius chose a Vantage Pro system from Davis Instruments. Working for Honda, he knew that the company’s racing teams used Davis technology in the pits to help track weather -- data they would then use to calibrate engines and tires on high-performance cars.

The Vantage Pro2, at about $500, is available in both wired and wireless versions. A favorite feature, which Antonius’ home system lacks, is its weather prediction mode. It’s “shockingly accurate,” he said -- correct about 80% of the time in forecasting a change in wind or temperature, either in port or at sea.

At Ambient Weather, a Phoenix-based supplier of weather stations for professionals and hobbyists, the Vantage Pro2 weather stations are rated a top choice for value.

Among other bestsellers at the site, the $300 WS2310 La Crosse Technology wireless station is rated best for cost.

There are other, lower-cost alternatives. La Crosse offers units for less than $100 that can be found at Costco, home improvement stores and specialty stores such as Radio Shack.

And a variety of systems are available from companies such as Oregon Scientific, Kestrel, Rainwise and WeatherHawk.

For reviews of various systems, you can go to www .weatherwatchers.org, the site for a worldwide organization of more than 6,000 amateur and professional weather enthusiasts. Another good website is the Weather Underground’s www .wunderground.com, which pulls together weather data from home weather stations around the world.

Working with Ambient Weather, Weather Underground last year began offering Weather Exchange, a free PC desktop application that collects information from more than 12,000 home stations around the world.

With all this high-tech gadgetry available, what does climatologist Patzert favor?

“Oh, I have a rain gauge in my yard.”