| I love all things wireless. Cables and wires have | | | | and recent historical temperature data to your |
| always found a way to get wrapped up between | | | | weather station positioned inside, preferably next |
| my feet. I broke my first thermometer | | | | to your favourite chair beside the fire with a hot |
| sometime around the beginning of the 90's, in | | | | mug of cocoa and a biscuit. |
| Crossgates, Leeds. It was winter and the weather | | | | The technology is moving on quickly these days |
| forecast was predicting a particularly cold night. | | | | as with all things wireless, and it is now possible to |
| Being the weather buff/geek that I am I decided | | | | get a fully functional wireless weather station |
| to trail the outdoor thermometer cable as far out | | | | recording all aspects of the weather from wind |
| of the window as I could, to record the overnight | | | | speed and temperature to humidity and pressure. |
| minimum. A simple enough exercise except I had | | | | They can also look good too, with more and |
| to leave the window open so as to not trap the | | | | more aesthetically pleasing stations being produced |
| cable. Unfortunately I woke up freezing in the | | | | in a multitude of designs and colours. |
| small hours and, in a sleep induced haze, pulled the | | | | There is a part of me that misses some of the |
| window tight shut, severing the wire sufficiently | | | | more traditional thermometers though. My dad |
| for the outdoor function to never work again. | | | | had an old fashioned U-shaped mercury |
| This started a pattern of tripping, kicking and | | | | thermometer with 2 pins and a magnet on the |
| general weather station abuse until the wireless | | | | garage wall. Each night you would move the pin |
| phenomenon came to my rescue. Suddenly the | | | | with the magnet to the top of the mercury |
| black cables reaching from the mantelpiece across | | | | column and the next morning wherever the pin |
| the cream wall and into the back garden were a | | | | had reached its highest point indicated the coldest |
| thing of the past. Wireless thermometers or | | | | overnight temperature. And then we would tap |
| weather stations allowed me to close all windows | | | | the barometer to check the air pressure. No |
| on a cold night if I so wished and still get an | | | | more tapping with wireless! Oh well, times change |
| accurate overnight temperature. An important | | | | and so must we. |
| factor for gardeners, farmers and weather geeks | | | | Incidentally, I still have my first weather station, |
| alike. | | | | complete with the severed cable. It records the |
| A wireless thermometer (or weather station) is a | | | | temperature indoors just fine, however the |
| simple device which allows you to check the | | | | outdoor display is permanently stuck on -50 |
| weather outside without ever actually venturing | | | | degrees Celsius. I don't think we'll be seeing |
| out there yourself. You fit the outdoor probe to | | | | temperature like that in Britain until the next ice |
| whichever part of the garden or house you like | | | | age. |
| and it wirelessly sends the current temperatures | | | | |