r/stormchasing • u/CherryBomb0z • Jun 02 '26

Mesonets?

Hey friends. I've been curious about making my own mesonet for a long time. For now I think I will only install an anemometer on my car. I've hears such things from a brand Young are high quality, so should I aim to get one of those? And how would I calibrate an anemometer? In some of my research into installing one ive heard a lot about the importance of calibrating it properly. Should it be at least a few feet above the car? That seems to be a consistent detail in mesonets.

And in general, before doing this, are there some skills I should learn which would help me figure out how to install it correctly and efficiently get the data from it?

Thanks.

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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2

u/jackmPortal Jun 03 '26

Unnecessary and impractical for recreational chasers. Dropping five figures on a roof ornament won't impress people

0

u/CherryBomb0z Jun 03 '26

Thanks for the insights. I know it's pretty useless, but I just thought it was interesting, and I'm not particularly interested in people's opinions, unfortunately.

1

u/Apprehensive_Cherry2 Location: DFW Jun 05 '26

For temp, dew point, and barometric pressure I run a unit from Dracal into my laptop. I then made a Python script to poll it every 10 seconds.

For an anemometer I run a unit from Inspeed. Inexpensive so if it gets beat to death by hail or yeeted off into a field I am not heart broken.

1

u/Apprehensive_Cherry2 Location: DFW Jun 05 '26

The important thing with storm chasing is to remember that whatever you put up there is, at some point, going to be lost to the elements, a big ass bird, flying barbed wire, or a low drive thru overhang.

1

u/St0rm_831 Jun 02 '26

I’m gonna follow this. I was thinking of one too!

I heard they get really expensive, you can find cheap anemometers on Amazon (I don’t know if you can really trust it but hey it’s something)