Strange request: help me find my weather station?! It's gone missing

It’s an odd request, I know.
Normally people lose their connection, but not their station. I have the reverse.
I have a great connection, I just can’t find my station.

I came home from being out of town for a week, during which there was some major weather.
I guess the mounting screw/plate wasn’t quite as tight as I thought, and my weather station seems to have become unmounted. Here’s where it gets weird.

Because my mounting location was on a post at the end of my private dock, the most logical place for the weather station to have fallen is in the water. At high tide that’s 8 feet deep, at low tide, it’s practically exposed. But I don’t see it anywhere and can’t figure out how to locate it.

Note, it’s still connected to my hub. Although the data it’s sending back is an odd mix of accurate and not so much. I can see the signal strength is still strong, which suggests it hasn’t gone very far?

I am at a loss as to how to try to find it, and was wondering if anyone had a brilliant idea.
A signal strength reader that could be used to tell me when I’m getting “hot” or “cold” in walking along the beach?

Yeah, I’m baffled too.

1 Like

Under the dock ?

There was a thread recently from a user whose mom stuck his in the kitchen cupboard or something. I think the thread had what he tried to zero in on it before finding it.

A few suggestions on this thread may help and if you tell us your station link a Sherlock Holmes may find clues in the data

Cheers Ian :slight_smile:

Here’s my station…

https://tempestwx.com/settings/station/93876/status

Can a tempest really continue to work like this even if its under water?

The only sensor that has totally failed is UV.

I had the same thought in that other thread, to use a power brick and the hub to walk around with an eye on the signal strength indicator. But a battery brick didn’t work, so I’ll need to find a very long extension cord and give it a shot when the tide is low.

1 Like

Trying plugging your phone and Hub into the battery brick so it’ll provide enough load to keep the battery on. The Hub draws so little power that some battery bricks auto-shutdown.

I’d bet somebody picked it up and placed it on land or boat nearby.

2 Likes

@david8 - I’m assuming from the current readings of your station that you found it? If so, that’s great! How did you find it? Please, some closure to the story :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes

So sorry i forgot to come back and provide closure on this!
Thanks to everyone who provided tips.
Here’s what happened.

I used a power brick to wander my beach to look for the unit, as I knew it was out there somewhere, still transmitting. But only temp and barometric pressure, not wind or UV. The refresh rate on the wireless signal level is pretty slow, making it difficult to use it for precise location. But it was good enough to tell me what general area it should be in. And what it was showing me made no sense as I still couldn’t find it.

So as the power level went into safety mode, I gave up on finding it, and ordered a replacement. On the day I installed it, on a whim, I looked in a seldom used boat locker that was installed on my dock. And sure enough, there was my weather station, but with the top broken off and nowhere to be found. Which explained the data I was getting. It was in a locked fiberglass box, with accurate temp readings, but no wind.

I inquired about getting the top replaced, and may still do so, but it’s involved, because the wires that connect the top to the circuit board appear to have gone with the top.

So the posters who suggested that somebody found it and put it somewhere were right. While we were out of town, it must have come loose (it was only mounted with the basic mount and a screw, not the sturdier one that fits over pipe). Somebody must have found it, and thinking they were being helpful, they put it in a safe location where i never thought to look. Of course they might have left a note.

But at least the mystery was solved! And my replacement unit swapped in easily which is why my data has continuity.

Thanks again for your suggestions!

8 Likes

Sounds like you have the world’s biggest inside T+H sensor. Cool story.

2 Likes