The AcuRite is wrong.
Yesterday’s power outage apparently electroshocked our weather widget into insensibility, so now come morning I have to step outside for a quick assay of the meteorological situation.
How tedious. A fella could get sunburnt, windburnt, soaked, frostbitten, lightning-struck, run over, or shot like that.
When Herself joined that long line for AcuRite’s online support chat yesterday their people proved less than supportive, shrugging their virtual shoulders and mumbling, “Hey, what could I tell you?”
However, I see from their website that AcuRite will happily give us 10 percent off purchases and keep us abreast of “exclusive offers, new products, and other useful content” if only we will sign up for their email list.
Nope. Let ’em step outside and holler if they have something to say to us. We are currently experiencing a heavy call volume. Please continue to hold (me bollocks).
Tags: Acu-Rite, me bollocks
Mad Blog Media 
July 30, 2022 at 9:22 am |
I figure they are as inaccurate as all the other so called weather prognosticators. Even when their site is up.
July 30, 2022 at 3:12 pm |
Before Herself bought this thing we relied on Weather Underground and the NWS. WU has a jillion affiliate weather stations around Albuquerque, all delivering wildly different data for similar locations, while NWS takes its numbers from the Sunport, which is 15 miles southwest and a thousand or so feet down.
Then the AcuThing would give us one temp, and the Subaru another, and finally I decided that I would have to ignore all of this information if I ever wanted to leave the house again.
July 31, 2022 at 3:25 pm |
Our old Subaru temp reading used to lie to us worse than Ted Cruz and tRump combined. We actually had a Subaru tech also lie to us and claim that certain vehicle colors would give errant temp readings.
July 31, 2022 at 4:04 pm |
It’s amusing to motor past a series of outfits with the temp display in their signs: 80°, 80°, 80° … and the Subie says 73°. It always reminds me of George Carlin’s news reader on “FM & AM.”
“It’s 8 o’clock in Los Angeles! It’s 9 o’clock in Denver! It’s 10 o’clock in Chicago! In Baltimore, it’s 6:42. … Time for the 11 O’Clock Report.”
July 30, 2022 at 9:43 am |
Other than the simple remote temperature gauges, I find most of the cheap “weather stations” don’t last very long. Rain and wind gauges have too many cheap moving parts that sun, wind, snow and ice play havoc with. If you get a year’s service you’re doing well
Apparently the more expensive (+300) weather stations are more robust, and have better customer service and have replaceable components. But are they worth the investment?
I have a cheap LaCrosse that was offered at a discount because of a fault with the wifi connectability. Otherwise it worked fine. The screen died after a few months and a new indoor unit was sent as soon as I notified them – so I might get a year. The exterior wind gauge is still functional and has a small solar panel for power. Maybe I’ll get a year out of it
July 30, 2022 at 10:34 am |
The NWS is on the internet, free. Also, Accuweather (I think a misnomer) and a couple others. I tend to check the NWS if I am going to be on a ride taking more than an hour from home.
July 30, 2022 at 10:43 am |
On the web, I rely on NWS.
July 30, 2022 at 3:16 pm |
I hear good things about LaCrosse. But truth be told, I’m kind of over most of the gadgetry.
I don’t use a heart-rate monitor anymore; just recently downsized from a 28-inch external monitor to the one that comes with the 15-inch 2014 MacBook Pro; and while I have a Lezyne GPS, I use it to track vertical gain only.
Frankly, the idea of ever having to buy a new car horrifies me. What the auto industry considers features I view as bugs.
Also, I’m regressing to friction shifting on The Fleet and now have two seven-speed drivetrains going on. You can’t stop me!
July 31, 2022 at 9:29 am |
That reminds me that I have to put a new battery in my guitar. What? Batteries for derailleurs and guitars just sounds wrong.
August 1, 2022 at 8:11 am |
I also. But NWS is reasonably accurate here, as our terrain doesn’t vary like yours. I use their hourly graph by zip code to get the wind prediction. My outside weather remote is temp only and works quite well on the north side of the house under the eave. Now my bike Garmin is another story. It’s an ancient model 500 and does everything quite well except temp. In the sun it’s predictably 10-25 degrees high. I write in my log “Wrong again, Garmin. It was 82 not 107” quite a lot.
August 1, 2022 at 10:54 am |
Remember the early heart-rate monitors, the ones that could be queered by anything, from overhead power lines to a stiff wind?
Once I was noodling along at a fat-burning pace when my Polar’s upper-limit alarm started going off like some poor sod flatlining in the ER. I look down to see “my” heart rate at 238 bpm. Um, no.
July 30, 2022 at 10:42 am |
I have a La Crosse that has on outside sensor for temp and humidity. The indoor display temp and humidity, plus a basic barometer based forecast which is rarely accurate. As you are probably aware, if you have nice wood instruments in the house, you need to know the relative humidity to keep them safe. It has worked for 4 years. Outdoor sensor runs on two AA batteries that last almost a year. It should be mounted line of sight to the indoor unit. Indoor runs on a wall wart and has backup battery, also AA, I think.
https://www.lacrossetechnology.com/products/c85845v4
July 30, 2022 at 4:03 pm |
I have a Taylor I bought at Ace Hardware. Just has indoor and outdoor temp and relative humidity. Main thing I worry about is when to put the heater in the birdbath, as one year it froze solid and I had to repair the huge cracks with marine 2 part epoxy. The NWS up here is at the Fanta Se Airport, which is about ten miles SW of us and much farther from the mountains. We can be five or more degrees colder overnight due to the mountain downslope air movement in the winter.
August 1, 2022 at 10:29 am |
My Go To method for daily weather (in order to determine what to do/not do outside) is booting up Accuweather Radar. I can see what is almost here and incoming over the next several hours at least. Generally pretty good baseline. I have been amazed at times when they say “rain in 21 minutes” and by Zeus it rains in 21 minutes! Although we get serious weather changes in the Mitten State, the weather pros can usually do a good job of forecasting. But if/when the weather comes out of the Northeast- all bets are off.
August 1, 2022 at 10:54 am |
Our monsoon season is really strange these days. We have been, until today, in the 60-80% chance category of thunderstorm and showers for the last 5 days. Did it rain at our casa? Not a drop.
August 1, 2022 at 10:57 am |
Same here, Paddy me boyo. Hot, high humidity, rain in the forecast, none on the ground. It’s starting to remind me of San Antone, and not in a good way, either.
August 1, 2022 at 12:46 pm |
We could see storms all around us in Tombstone, Sonoita, Northern Sonora, and towards I-10. The rain always stayed North and West of us. Western half of the forecast area from a line around I-19 West really got slammed with storms. Sierra Vista, nada.
August 1, 2022 at 4:56 pm |
I found the solution. If you turn the sprinkler system back on, it will rain like a mad bastard for at least 15 minutes.
August 1, 2022 at 6:03 pm |
I washed the car yesterday afternoon…, no rain. I waxed the car this morning…, no rain. I think I need to take the dining room table out in the driveway and start to refinish it. That ought to be the ticket.
But today the temperature has crested under the 100F mark. The first time since the 23rd of July. It’s a good thing our power comes from a nearby hydro-power dam. It’s in the mid 90’s and quite nice. I guess I can put the kiddie pool away now.
August 1, 2022 at 7:33 pm |
Good to hear the temps are dropping. You folks have been on the grill up there.
August 2, 2022 at 6:50 am |
you don’t need a weather app to know which way the wind blows
August 2, 2022 at 3:43 pm |
He shoots, he scores!