All gardeners know that weather is both important and unpredictable. Maybe you rely on the Farmer’s Almanac to plan your year, but what about day-to-day weather? The local news can be useful, but these forecasts are not local to your backyard, and they are not always as accurate as you need them to be. A great solution for the serious gardener is to do your own hyperlocal monitoring. All you need to do it are the right tools.

The Importance of Weather in Gardening

If you have been gardening for any period of time, you know how important it is to understand the weather. The better you can predict it, the easier your job is. Knowing what kind of weather is coming will help you determine:

• How much and when to water
• When to plant seeds
• When to apply fertilizer
• How to avoid frost damage
• When to start spring seedlings
• When you need to take steps to prevent wind damage
• How to plan your daily and weekly garden tasks

Using a Weather Station

Relying on local weather forecasts can help with some of the above chores, but it’s an imperfect method. A better way to know what’s coming is to measure weather right in your garden or yard. You can do this with a weather station, which is a collection of measurement tools that you can set up and get readings from on everything from rain to humidity.

Most basic weather stations include instruments for measuring temperature and air pressure. Some also include relative humidity sensors, anemometers and weather vanes to measure wind direction and speed, and rain gauges to tell you how much precipitation you’re getting. All of these measurements will give you weather in real time and help you predict what’s coming next.

 The ATLAS™ weather station is made by AcuRite and includes multiple options so you can build your own station with all the instruments and measuring gauges you want. Get temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, rain, UV index, and light intensity. To these basic measurements you can add a touchscreen display, a wind extension for more accurate wind measurements, or a lightning detector.

Use an App to Track Weather in Real Time

With the ATLAS™ weather station, you can also purchase the AcuRite Access. This allows you to view measurements remotely using an app downloaded to your tablet or phone, or on your computer. Take measurements and analyze your garden weather from the comfort of the indoors. You can even connect to Alexa and Weather Underground’s personal weather station network.

An AcuRite ATLAS™ weather station is a simple tool but one that makes a big difference in how you garden. Make better plans, save water, prevent damage, and get more out of your garden in general when you understand and can predict the weather in your very backyard.