Weather Break

Click here to listen to this episode of Weather Break.
For anywhere between $30 and a few thousand dollars, anyone can set up a backyard weather station to monitor the weather and climate of their neighborhood.  Lots of people have simple systems like rain gages, but a real weather enthusiast might have wind vanes and anemometers [...]

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Click here to listen to episode 770 of Weather Break.
A barometer is a very technical piece of weather equipment that is used to measure air pressure.  An official mercury barometer costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars, yet the principles on which it is based are quite straightforward– in fact, they are EXACTLY the same [...]

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Click here to listen to episode 739 of Weather Break.
All this week on Weather Break, we have been talking about different instruments that can be used to measure precipitation.  So far, all of these pieces of equipment have been collecting what are called “in situ” weather observations.  ”In situ” is a Latin phrase that means [...]

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Click here to listen to episode 738 of Weather Break.
So far during this week of special coverage of how meteorologists and atmospheric scientists measure rainfall, we’ve talked a number of different kinds of rain gauges that work for several different applications.  For most purposes, these basic rain gauges are more than accurate and reliable enough. [...]

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Click here to listen to episode 737 of Weather Break.
Yesterday on Weather Break we kicked off a week of special coverage about the measurement of precipitation by talking about the kinds of basic rain gauges any weather enthusiast could find at the local hardware store.  Today we’re turning a more specialized (and more expensive) instrument [...]

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