The Best Weather Stations for Home Use

Though none of the weather monitors we’ve chosen for this page are truly professional-grade, some actually come pretty close. The Davis Instruments Vantage Vue is one of these and makes a nice option for weather watchers who’ve gotten to the point where a basic machine just doesn’t work for them anymore.

High Quality, Simple Weather Station

To begin with, it’s very tough. Numerous users have left this measurement unit outside through snow, storms, and sun for years while it just keeps on ticking (of course, no manufacturer is perfect in this respect).

Secondly, it measures things like wind speed, wind direction, and dew point, which many cheaper models can’t do.

A professional-looking control and monitoring panel features a 4.4″ wide backlit LCD screen, which also displays variables like the phase of the moon, local sunrise and sunset times, and a rudimentary graph of trends over time.

In addition, it features a total of 22 alarms. If you set the appropriate one and the station detects a sudden drop in barometric pressure, it will warn you that a storm may be on its way. A freeze alarm may remind you to bring in the dog and cover the roses, and so on.

Easy to Install (But Only Up to a Point)

Considering that it contains its own anemometer, hygrometer, rain gauge, wind vane, and solar panel (with a rechargeable lithium battery providing power at night), this weather station is still reasonably compact at 19 inches long by 15 inches wide. Its modern, black and white design is not unattractive…though this won’t stop a certain type of neighbor from complaining anyway.

The pole is sold separately, but this is probably just as well – you can get much the same thing at a hardware store for a third of the price. Just make sure to put it up high enough if mounting it to a building instead of on a free-standing pole, otherwise the heat from the structure will throw off your readings. In any case, the included U-bolt fits well on the bottom of the casing.

Initial setup is very easy: just fix it to a pole, plug in the monitoring station, or put in its batteries, and all that’s left to do is set the time and location.

If, however, you want to monitor the weather from a remote location using your phone, you’re somewhat out of luck. This will require a computer that’s constantly running, special software, more than a little technical knowledge, and, as well, an adapter costing over $100. This is disappointing, considering the price of this otherwise impressive weather station.

If this doesn’t bother you though, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something better in this price range.

As you may have noticed by now, there’s a big, big difference between the prices of different kinds of weather stations. This all comes down to their capabilities, with styling and brand reputation playing secondary roles.

We voted this particular product best weather station for the money because it’s one of the cheapest out there, yet still does what most people will want it to. Plus a couple of handy extra things.

Multiple Zones

Aside from the indoor sensor built into the display unit itself, this weather monitor can talk to up to three outdoor stations from a (claimed) 500 feet away.

The sensors are also rated as waterproof, unlike the single one that’s supplied with the La Crosse Technology 308. We can’t really see why they chose to make the sensors black, though – white would look a lot nicer on most walls. Painting them will probably reduce their accuracy or cause them to stop working altogether.

The basic package includes only a single outdoor sensor, so monitoring multiple areas will drive up the total price somewhat. Also like with the La Crosse, the internal clock is kept accurate through radio signals originating from an atomic timer.

Other Features

Pairing a new sensor with the monitor station is easier than it often is with Bluetooth. Simply hold one button for three seconds, press another, and wait for it to beep. Especially since you might want to use multiple sensors to cover a large area, the excellent transmission range of this wireless home weather station is a definite bonus, too.

Our worst criticism of this design would be that it runs on AA and AAA batteries, and making sure these are still charged can become a hassle.

Also, most other displays can be plugged in and therefore you can leave the backlight on all the time without having to care about conserving the battery. When you want to check this one in anything but a brightly-lit room, you have to physically walk over to it and press a button, despite the large numbers.

With almost all home weather stations on sale today, you’ll generally look at its display unit when you’re home and you want to know something. Few, however, can compare with the WS-1002’s very nice, full-color, tablet-like panel, which is almost intimidating in terms of how much information it provides.

The most salient feature of this accurate weather station, however, is that it connects seamlessly to Alexa and supports IFTTT programming for automated homes.

This means that, assuming you already have all the other bells and whistles installed, you can tell it to (for example) water the lawn less if it has rained recently, or turn on the air conditioning if the indoor temperature in some room exceeds a certain point.

The weather station includes one indoor sensor, separate from the control panel, for precise control over a particular area or room.

More than just Weather Basics

What distinguishes this piece of equipment further is the fact that it tracks solar radiation and ultraviolet intensity. Especially if you live somewhere near the equator or at high altitudes, this is really a factor of your daily environment you should be aware of.

Perhaps more interesting, though, is the way in which data is presented to you. As one example, you can check (and set alarms for) rain intensity rather than rainfall within a given period. There’s a big difference between receiving two inches of water over an hour and getting that much in five minutes.

You can also call up detailed graphs and even export years of weather data in spreadsheet format if, for whatever reason, you want to do so.

But Maybe Not Your Cup of Tea

Unsuprisingly, considering all these features, this is one of the more expensive weather stations you’re likely to run across. It’s definitely one of the best home weather stations, but is it worth it?

If your house is already all wired up with things like motorized curtain-pullers and intelligent lightbulb switcher-onners, the answer may well be “Yes”. It can save you a little frustration if the windows close automatically when it starts to rain, or Alexa can remind you to take an umbrella.

However, you can probably find something just as suitable to your needs at a lower price. Also, if you’re the type of person who still thinks wi-fi is powered by fairies, it will probably take you some time to learn to use the advanced features.

Little brother to the WS-1002, this product offers many of the same features at about half the price. The smaller instrument housing is laid out very differently to the WS-1002, but, surprisingly, the main difference lies in the display panel.

While the WS-1002 has a full-featured tablet-style monitor that can switch between various screens, users of this one have to rely on a less intuitive LCD display. Like you’ll find on the AcuRite AcuRite 01512 / 01012M, this isn’t a true color display, but has different tints applied over various sections to give that illusion.

Optimized for the Screen Junkie

The less advanced screen means that you will have to set up this wireless weather station using a different digital device. How difficult this will be depends on how familiar you are with computers, but most people shouldn’t have a problem.

Also like the WS-1002, this weather station can be linked to Alexa and your home automation system, with the ability to program custom alerts and actions (e.g. “If the wind blows from the north and faster than 10 m.p.h, close north-facing windows”).

It can also link to websites like Weather Underground, making your weather station’s data available to the meteorological community at large.

The “dumb” screen does have at least one advantage: you can link more than one to the same measuring station. This way, you can check on the weather from either the bedroom and living room.

If you plan to view it only on your phone or computer, you can even do without the control panel completely by buying an ObserverIP unit and plugging this into your router.

Great Functionality, Good Price

Really, apart from not having a secondary indoor sensor to monitor a particular room in your house, the only thing that distinguishes this model from the much more expensive WS-1002 is the display panel. Both work well with other digital systems, both measure UV and sunlight intensity, and both feature similar build quality.

In some cases, you might prefer the latter, but in terms of value, the WS-2902A wins by a mile.

Sporting a design that would have looked futuristic in 1980 (including a little pixelated landscape to show what the weather will soon be like), one of the more interesting features of this low-cost home weather station is a clock. All the others on this list have one too, but in this case it’s guaranteed to always tell the correct time.

Once you’ve set your time zone and daylight savings policy for your region, it automatically synchronizes itself to a radio signal based on an atomic clock (within the United States only, unfortunately). This means it’s expected to drift by only one second in 100 million years, which is almost certainly accurate enough for your purposes. The La Crosse Technology 308 and X-Sense have the same feature.

Basic Weather Features

Unlike some weather stations which can display almost a dozen different readings, this La Crosse product shows only temperature and humidity, for both indoors and outside. It also has a basic prediction ability which is, as mentioned, displayed in cartoon form.

Given this station’s limited range of function and overall design, this might make a good gift for a younger person or someone with a weird sense of humor. It’s 8½ by 5½ inches in size and can either be mounted on a wall or placed on a shelf.

Not for Scientists, but Still Useful

Compared to some of the other smart home weather stations you can find here, this is really more of a clock with some extra features. Its forecasting function is based only on whether the mercury is rising or falling, not the actual barometric reading. Still, it seems to work most of the time, and you’ll never have to forget about daylight savings time adjustments.

Installation is also as easy as could possibly be. Simply plop in some batteries, hang the outdoor sensor on the wall, and it should work. Just keep in mind that, unlike most weather sensors, this one isn’t actually weather-proof; the outside sensor has to be placed under an overhang.

Most people don’t take weather stations with them on holiday. At times, though, you really need a handheld sensor you can rely on.

Mountaineers need to know their altitude and any changes in barometric pressure, windsurfers look at wind speed and direction, and competitive rifle shooters require both of those measurements as well as the precise temperature. More people than you’d believe use atmospheric meters professionally, even when traveling.

A True Multi-Function Weather Station

Most of these gadgets do one thing and one thing only, making them something other than true weather stations. The Kestrel company, however, makes a number of handheld sensors that can measure a whole bunch of variables.

This one is focused on the agricultural market but is actually suitable for quite a lot more, including serious scientific research. It quantifies several atmospheric variables, some of which aren’t normally of interest to the owner of a home weather station:

• Wet bulb temperature compensates for the way low humidity makes us feel colder;
• Dew point is the temperature at which air becomes saturated, i.e. relative humidity reaches 100%;
• Altitude, based on ambient barometric pressure and other factors;
• Delta-T, a measure of how fast water evaporates.

It also uses various electronic tricks to adjust the output of one sensor depending on that of another, making readings more accurate even under unusual conditions.

Physical Design

At 5 inches long and weighing under six ounces, this atmosphere analyzer is both comfortable and rugged enough to carry in a pocket. It comes with a cover and won’t be damaged by water – in fact, it floats if you’re careless about using the attached lanyard. The manufacturer is based in the U.S. and provides a 5-year warranty.

The coin-cell battery lasts for several hundred hours. This may be the reason Kestrel went with such a basic, low-power LCD screen for this personal weather station (a version with a backlight is also available for nighttime use).

This machine can track trends in temperature and pressure as well as other factors for periods of up to 3 hours, but with only three buttons and a tiny display to work with, the user interface is not intuitive.

On the other hand, people drawn to this weather station will usually know what they’re doing, and most of them love the 3500.

There’s plenty to like about the Davis Instruments Vantage Vue, not least its durability and ease of use. Looking at some of its characteristics, though – especially the monitoring station’s design and the difficulty of linking it to a computer – it seems like the company hasn’t redesigned this product from the ground up in years.

This model from AcuRite has a much slicker interface and, depending on which option you choose, costs about half as much as its competitor while measuring all of the same atmospheric variables.

Enhanced Connectivity

Like most home weather stations, the measuring unit communicates with the display wirelessly. In this case, for up to about 300 feet depending on how clear the path is.

Unlike some, it’s also capable of making basic, short-term predictions (e.g. “It might rain today.”) and giving an indication of how warm it actually feels in human terms by taking humidity and wind speed into account.

It’s not a truly smart weather station, though. The rather cheerful-looking screen, though backlit in different colors, is the same basic LCD type you’ll find in a pocket calculator.

What it can do is connect to your wi-fi router and allow you to check the readings from anywhere.

Please note that the display station itself isn’t actually wi-fi compatible. You’ll have to order a separate “access hub” to be able to use the phone app. This also links your wireless weather station to Alexa and can connect to as many as 7 different AcuRite devices.

Multiple Displays

Apart from keeping tabs on the weather conditions around your home with a mobile device, this weather station also allows you to link multiple displays to the same sensor unit, or use up to three monitoring stations on the same property (each with its own screen).

If your neighbor has the same product, you might get interference, so sort it out between yourselves.

Some Pain Points

Though this smart home weather station works well and can withstand a huge range of temperatures (-40°F to 160°F), it’s not going to last forever. Hail might damage the anemometer (wind speed meter), as can curious wildlife unless it’s mounted high up.

Still, at this price point, we really shouldn’t expect miracles. Adding features, using higher quality components, and enforcing higher quality standards all cost money, driving up the amount the consumer has to pay. Every company has to strike a balance here, and it seems AcuRite chose to offer a full-featured weather station at a reasonable price.