Where to site a themometer?

So, spurned on by the "what's your weather like" thread, all those who can tell the temperature of their gardens, I stumbled across a pretty one yesterday in town

This morning, I opened it and then ... ... *where* is the best place to site it?

Then, I thought some more: I have a larger than average garden (as many of you know), so, surely, the garden is going to be different temps in different places/aspects? Should I have bought more?

And, if more: how many?

And, if more: just where am I to site them all?

Who knew a thermometer could cause so many questions!?

 

You want it in a sheltered corner, out of direct sun & protected from the wind.
One's in weather stations are usually in a louvred box.

 

Yes - lots - everywhere. Does that answer your question?

I do have several. I find the mercury/alcohol ones the most accurate and reliable. All my electronic ones give different temperatures when they are put in the same place, but they do have the convenience of having probes that can be into a pot etc, and conveniently store max and min values.

Perhaps the key thing is to select one static place and record the temperatures and overnight lows etc. Thereafter, I find it is the relative values that count as much as the absolutes. Ie was it colder or not as cold as last night.

I think the general recommendation is to put it in the shade about 2 feet off the ground. Direct sun will give a false reading, and the temperature will vary with height. You can get a ground frost but not an air frost on some nights.

However it is worth experimenting with more than one. Put them together to calibrate them - ie to see if one always reads higher than the other. Then move the other one around the garden. Every garden has micro-climates and you could find one part, eg close to the house or by a brick wall, as much as 2 or 3 degrees warmer than others. This could be important if you have marginally hardy plants.

 

Wireless weather station on special offer at Maplins (reduced from 89.99 to 59.99). Will record, to your computer, indoor and outdoor temperature and humidty, and outdoor wind direction & speed and rainfall. Will also upload that data to www.Wunderground.com. Its in the cheap-and-cheerful bracket though, and as such the base station readout is a bit hard to see (poor backlight), and the temperature sensor could benefit from a larger Stevenson-screen - easy enough to rig something up though - but mine has been running for several years, touch wood!, and I do look back through past data to compare previous seasons etc.

 

I have my mercury thermometer on a north facing wall, its about 20ft from the house so not the coldest, but also not one of the warmest places.
I do agree that you need relative readings, so once you find a good place dont move it, you then know your highest and lowest temperatures over a period of time.

My Maximum readings are always a bit on the low side due to the positioning, but I prefer to have it that way rather than the opposite.

 

Worth having a look on Wunderground in case there is someone with a weather station just down the road from you ...

 

Kristen, do you actually think Wunderground is worth looking at.
The people adding the info have their sensors in all kinds of stupid places all coming up with wildly varying temps.
I'm sure some have them in the living room.

 

You are not wrong there

For my home-location, and then on the mini-map on the right, I press "zoom out" 4 times, and that gives me a reasonable area around me with about half a dozen stations showing. I have got used to which ones agree with each other, and which don't and thus I trust the ones that don't sky-rocket as the sun comes over the horizon in the morning, or read 22C when all the others are -10C !

The equipemtn being used is listed too, although that doesn't tell you if they are well sited, but an Oregan loads-a-money that has been running for half a dozen years is more likely an enthusiast than more-money-than-sense, hopefully.

What erks me is that surely Wunderground could apply some simple tests to the data coming in and downgrade some stations that are clearly not working accurately. They don't seem to care overly ... no easy way to upload historical data, or upload data that has got missed from uploading when internet my down for a couple of hours. Chasing the advertising dollars instead I expect.

 

According to Wunderground its minus 18C just a few miles north of me, but to be fair most are showing between 3 and 4C, it as you say once the sun comes out it all gets confusing.

I do hate this, "feels like", thing that keeps appearing.
Is that how it feels to me, or some Eskimo, or maybe Tarzan?

 

The -18C might be the "stuck" temperature that the sensor sends? Again, something else that I think that Wunderground could & should weed out in their software. Pity.

Something like: "-18C is a known value for malfunctioning devices ... anything recording that to be ignored if it does not change for X hours, until it reads something different. Plus: send an email to the member reminding them to get it fixed, or remove it from their freezer and stop using it to if they have a power cut"

 

No matter where you situate the themometer, so long as it's in shade, all you'll get is a pretty much average determination of the temperature in your garden and for all horticultural purposes this should suffice.
We've two outdoor sensors, both in shade but one is less prone to wind chill than the other. The difference in temperature reading is about 1 degree C.
A local 'Wunderground' site about a mile from here consistently records temperature at around 0.8 C lower than than here, but it is a much more exposed site.