Holiday Shopping Guide for the Weather Enthusiast: Drones, PWSs, and Books

If you really want to get a perfect angle for that awesome sunset you're planning to upload as a wunderphoto and get a coveted "Approver's Choice" award for, you need a drone. I recommend the DJI Phantom 3 Standard, which I purchased from Amazon for $999 back in July. The price has gone down to $669, which is a pretty amazing deal for a camera that will provide streaming video to your smart phone or tablet from up to 1/2 mile away, fly up to 400 feet high, and take 4000x3000 pixel still images or 2.7K video. The drone can fly up to 25 minutes with its lithium-ion battery. The Phantom 3 is tough, too--I've already crashed mine once by foolishly flying it too close to my house (the backwash from the propellers reflected off the walls and caused an unexpected deviation in the attitude of the drone, and I panicked and steered it into the gutter.) The drone fell ten feet to the ground, but was unharmed save for a few nicked propeller blades that I swapped out using the spares that came with the drone. Keep in mind that drones cannot be flown in National Parks, in downtown Washington D.C., near airports, or above 400 feet in altitude. If a drone is being used for commercial purposes, such as selling photos or videos, then the FAA requires explicit permission. You can learn more at the Know Before You Fly website, or the Pro Video Coalition's discussion of FAA drone rules as of September 2015.


Figure 1. Aerial view of Dunham Lake, Michigan in full fall splendor (an Approver's Choice wunderphoto!) taken this fall with my DJI Phantom 3 Standard drone.

Holiday books for the weather and climate science enthusiast
If you're bewildered by the complexity of the climate change/global warming issue, and want a comprehensive, easy-to-understand guide with great visuals that touches on all of the important issues, look no further than “Dire Predictions Understanding Climate Change: The Visual Guide to the Findings of the IPCC” by Penn State professors Michael Mann and Lee Kump. Dr. Mann is a leading climate scientist, and is also author of "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars", which I reviewed in 2012. Published in 2015 (second edition), "Dire Predictions" would make a great text for teaching a course on climate change at the high school or introductory college level. The book is separated into five sections: Climate Change Basics, Climate Change Projections, The Impacts of Climate Change, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change, and Solving Climate Change. Every page is filled with rich illustrations, graphs, and images that help get across the complexities of climate change; these visuals add considerable pizzazz so the topic is not boring. The book has a provocative section near the end on the morality of climate change and the urgency of climate change, and concludes with the words, "Climate change is the greatest challenge ever faced by human society. But it is a challenge that we must confront, for the alternative is a future that is unpalatable, and potentially unlivable. While it is clear that inaction will have dire consequences, it is likewise certain that a concerted effort on the part of humanity to act in its own best interests has great potential to result in success." The paperback version of “Dire Predictions” is $18.60 from Amazon.com. My only criticism of the book is that some of the historical data plots could have been updated to give data points closer to the publication year of 2015, but I give "Dire Predictions" five stars out of five. The book would be a nice companion to my recommendation from last year’s holiday gift guide, ”The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change”, published in August 2014, by our very own Bob Henson.

Bob Henson has this recommendation: “A book called ’Secrets of The Greatest Snow on Earth’ might sound like a paid advertisement for the state of Utah. In fact, the state trademarked the slogan ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’ in 1975, but author Jim Steenburgh uses it liberally (with permission). Steenburgh’s book explains what makes the snow of the Beehive State, and in particular the Wasatch Range just east of Salt Lake City, so well suited for winter sports. But it also serves as a very appealing primer on snow meteorology as a whole. ‘The Greatest Snow on Earth’ is a colorful paperback, filled with photos as well as beautifully rendered maps and scientific explanations. Steenburgh, a meteorology professor at the University of Utah, is a snow lover himself, and the writing is sprinkled with skier/boarder lingo as well as handy explanations for those of us unfamiliar with dust-on-crust, blower pow, or right-side-up snowfall. The book is an easy, informative, and engaging read while also staying scientifically rock-solid. Steenburgh explores big-snow regimes around the world, reviews avalanche safety and prevention, and examines how climate change could affect snowfall in Utah. This book is an ideal gift for someone who’s passionate about alpine snow sports and/or curious about the amazing weather that makes them possible. ‘Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth’ is available for $15.66 in paperback or $10.99 as a Kindle ebook from Amazon. I give it a solid five stars out of five.”



A Personal Weather Station: yes!
Every serious weather enthusiast deserves a Personal Weather Station (PWS) in their backyard! Not only can you enjoy seeing what the weather is in your backyard, you can share the data with everyone else on the Internet by uploading to the wunderground Personal Weather Station network, which boasts data from over 140,000 stations. You don’t need to have a computer on all the time to collect the data and send it to the Internet—a WeatherBridge device will keep the data flowing to the Internet even when your computer is turned off. A full list of wunderground-compatible PWS models, software, and add-ons like the Ambient WeatherBridge is available from our Personal Weather Station buying guide page. A few recommendations I have:

Weather station for a smart phone: Netatmo
The Netatmo Weather Monitor ($129) contains a unique set of sensors to monitor your living environment and wirelessly transmits all your data to your Smartphone. The Netatmo App displays your station’s indoor and outdoor measurements into clear and comprehensive dashboards, graphs and notifications. 

A low-end PWS choice: Davis Vantage Vue
The Davis Vantage Vue + WeatherBridge Package is $625 from ambientweather.com. Combine the convenience of WeatherBridge with Davis Instruments' Vantage Vue™ station which is fully featured, highly accurate and affordably priced.

A high-end PWS choice: Rainwise
I have had a Davis Vantage Pro2 in my backyard for the past seven years, and have been very happy with it, but I also recommend the RainWise Direct to Weather Underground Package, $999 from rainwise.com. The RainWise RapidFire™ enabled weather station doesn't need a PC to upload to us, and with an ultra-fast refresh rate of every 3-5 seconds, new data is updated instantly.

A webcam choice: Ubiquiti Networks AirCam
The AirCam Indoor/Outdoor IP Camera from Ubiquiti Networks ($130) combines advanced industrial design and powerful performance.



Weather Underground T-shirts and hoodies
The Weather Underground store has an assortment of T-shirts and hoodies available for 10% off through January 1 when you use this promotion code: WUFANSAVE10.

Jeff Masters (with Bob Henson contributing to the book reviews)