This page is now considered outdated as the information has not been updated in sometime and is no longer relevant to the current Davis systems. This page has been left as a reference page in our ‘Legacy’ section.
As a new addition to the website here, we’re planning to host a series of what we’re calling special reports or features. We will aim to cover several types of topic in time, though we will only be adding new content here as and when there’s a new contribution of note to include.
- From the weather lab: (Click this link to go direct to the weather-lab area) Notes from our own labs and installations where we may be trialling weather station configurations or new products with results that may be of wider interest.;
- Reviews of Davis weather stations and other products, written by acknowledged independent experts, which should be of interest to anyone seeking an in-depth and objective critique of these products;
- Specialist reports: Contributions from users with particular experience in using weather stations in specific settings;
- Application Notes: How-to guide covering individual products, software utilities etc;
Please get in touch with us if you have any suggestions for topics that you might like to see covered in future reports or indeed if you would like to author a report yourself.
1. Davis VP2 Station – An Independent Review Against Standard Instruments
The first of our reports is an independent review of the Davis Vantage Pro 2 station, documenting its performance against UK-standard meteorological reference instruments over a year-long evaluation period. To be clear, this review is fully independent of ourselves at Prodata Weather Systems – we played no part in the evaluation process nor in the preparation of the manuscript beyond offering a few technical comments on an early draft, along with a number of other experienced reviewers. We’re delighted to be able to act as an exclusive online distribution mechanism for this review in order to make it freely available to a wider audience.
The introductory resume to the review reads:
- Davis Instruments Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) are the market leader in their category. But are the meteorological data obtained from them reliable and accurate, or are they simply gadgets?
- This entirely independent review compares in detail the performance of a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 AWS against UK and Ireland-standard climatological instrumentation at a site in central southern England over a 12 month period. This comparative review of an entire Davis AWS the first of its kind to be published in Europe, and is exclusive to Prodata Weather Systems.
The full review may be downloaded in PDF form here.
Please note that the copyright of the review belongs to the author and rights to online distribution are held by Prodata Weather Systems. Reproduction elsewhere or redistribution of the PDF file in any way are not allowed without express permission.
2. Weather stations in education – setting up a station at Maiden-Erlegh School
Martin Sutton, a teacher from Maiden Erlegh Secondary School in Reading (UK) has kindly contributed a fascinating case study, describing the school’s experiences from initial concept through to successful operation in setting up a new automatic weather station at the school.
Read Martin’s case study here.