There has been a couple of questions about weather stations recently, so a very brief guide.
First of all, things to consider:
wind speed (anememometer). These seem to be more commonly sold with more affordable stations than they used to be. Its one of the main measurements people want to be able to do. Official anemometer readings are taken at a height of 10m in order to avoid any effect of drag from the ground. This isnt very practical for most people! But you really should aim for 10ft above whatever you are mounting it from. Ideally mount it high - above the roof line. (mine is on a mast mounted above the roof) Note, with cabled anemometers, if you are then running a wire from that to a unit which then runs a wire into the house, there is a small risk of lightning strike frying things. For that reason, I run my weather station wirelessly.
rainfall Your rain gauge needs to be mounted away from fences or anything that can cause eddying. About 5ft is the right height. You can get fancy ones that have little heaters to melt snow. Make sure you keep the gauge free of debris.
Temperature Shielding is the key word here. If your thermometer doesnt have a proper solar shield then all it is measuring is its ability to absorb/radiate heat, not the actual air temperature. 5ft is a pretty good height for this too.
pressure Not much to say, other than don't forget to adjust the barometer to your height above sea level in order to get a reading that tallies with official barometric readings, else you'll end up with ridiculous readings.
As to which model. Well, the prices go from £££ to £.
Mine is very nice indeed - a davis vantage pro 2 from which I can run data to a website. It comes with a separate data logger. It is for the serious weather geek!
A more budget model (which is still quite pricey) is one from maplins I believe the anemometer can be mounted separately. The Lacrosse is a similar price and has a good reputation for its price.
If your budget is tiny, I used to use an [[
uk.oregonscientific.com/cat-Weather.html oregon scientific]] which is fine if you accept its limitations. At that sort of price I probably wouldn't bother about an anemometer and I had to make my own solar shield. My old one didnt connect to the pc. Alternatively of course you could go for an old fashioned plastic rain gauge and a mounted thermometer.
Any questions? (or additional comments or corrections?)