The accuracy of weather instruments we offer varies from very basic up to scientifically accepted. Generally the level of accuracy is reflected in the price. Bear in mind that it is often trend or linearity that is more important than accuracy.

Digital consumer products often state resolution which should not be confused with accuracy. Resolution is simply the number of decimal places that the instrument can display and not its accuracy. Consider also a traditional bulb thermometer where the accuracy depends on the scale being correct and aligned correctly as well as your ability to read off the mensicus against that scale.

For consumer products

Last month we talked about some of the ways to get forecast weather information of specific use to the marine community. As I mentioned then though, if you know your met well enough then you'll be able to supplement the forecast with information on the hoof, interpreting changes to the weather as you go along.

What then are some of the signs that can warn you in advance of the imminent development of stormy weather, that for smaller craft and crew can cause the most problems?

Generally, sea and swell will take their time to rise and you can usually be aware of these changes enough in advance to head for port. However the most rapid changes usually occur when atmospheric conditions cause sudden squalls and thunderstorms. These are often linked to frontal passages and again, a quick check on the forecast weather chart will usually show if you are likely to encounter them on your journey. A cold front in particular will often give squalls and heavy

The so called 'Christmas Blizzard' of 1927 was one of the worst blizzards of the 20th century to hit the southern UK.On Christmas Eve, there was a cold ENE'ly flow across the UK bringing with it snow showers to the east coast and night frosts.

By Christmas Day, a low pressure had moved into the English Channel of around 987mb and this then engaged the colder air to the north and east. Initially, the precipitation that fell was rain but as the low pulled down even colder air from above, the rain turned readily to snow and by midnight, many southern and southeastern counties had a snow cover. Conditions the next day were very bad with heavy snowfalls and a gale force northeasterly wind bringing blizzard conditions and severe drifting. Villages were cut off by drifts up to 6-7 metres (20 feet) and food supplies had to be air-dropped. Transport was virtually paralysed with train services seriously delayed or cancelled. Even in central London, depths of snow

Although we see a lot of sunshine in April, it's in May that the strength of the sun really becomes apparent if you stay out in it for any length of time.

The sun is at its strongest at the time of the summer solstice, around June 21st but by early May it is as strong as in mid August and quite capable of causing sunburn, if you don't take the right precautions.

The average sunshine amount during May across England and Wales is about 200 hours, equating to around 7 hours per day but the sunniest Mays' can see more like nine or ten hours on average each day. As the far north sees increasingly long days, in the right conditions parts of Scotland can see a lot of warm sunshine; for example in May 1975 there were 329 hours recorded on the island of Tiree in the Outer Hebrides, Scotlands sunniest month ever.

Whilst we record the total hours of sunshine it is the strength of the sun that actually causes most problems, combined with how long you

St Annes Old Links Golf Club has been established since 1901 on land which since 1886 had been home to the Lytham & St. Anne’s Golf Club. The club is located in the North West of England about a mile from the Royal Lytham Open 2012 venue.

Stuart Hogg is the Course Manager at St Annes Old Links and has been at the club for over 8 years. Stuart controls the budgets and purchasing of equipment, and has the responsibility of maintaining the greens, fairways and even the car park! The course has 7 full time staff and 4 part time staff depending on the time of year. Stuart started a career in greenkeeping as his “ideal job would be one which he could still play football on a Saturday afternoon!”. He started a Youth Training Scheme job at a championship course local to home and has been developing his knowledge, understanding and skills ever since.

Stuart had used a Davis Vantage

The British Antarctic Survey purchased their first Davis Vantage Pro from us in 2004 to use on the air strip at Sky-Blu, http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Stations/Sky_Blu/index.html. The instrument is used to give reliable information to their support aircraft during take off and landings. The groomed blue ice runway is up to 1.2 km in length and 50 m wide, permanently marked by flags.

A second purchase in 2005 means the new Davis Vantage Pro 2, with its increased transmission range of up to 300 metres, is to be located at Fossil Bluff later in the year, http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Stations/Fossil_Bluff/index.html. This site is a facility for refueling aircraft

The Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex is the largest research group in the UK studying honey bees and other social insects the bees, wasps and ants that live in a colony with a queen and workers. LASI research studies the honey bee and other social insects "in the round" addressing both applied and basic questions.

Their Davis Vantage Pro 2 station was installed after being acquired as part of the Sussex Plan for Honey Bee Health and Well Being. Dr Martyn Stenning, Technician for the University of Sussex' Biology and Environmental Science department and Mr Phil Chitty from the ITS support, installed the meteorological station on the roof of the Laboratory. It is hooked up to a laptop inside the laboratory where it will feed information through on a daily basis. Dr Margaret Couvillon said: "The weather station will provide accurate and up to date information

Consumer weather stations usually come with sensors that are not adequately protected from solar radiation or they have additional sensors that you might want to protect from solar radiation. Installing them in a radiation shield won't turn a consumer accuracy sensor into one such as manufactured to traceable standards but it will help reduce the inaccuracy due to solar gain.

You could try Googling the question but there are already a couple of useful articles out there.

For a pasive shield you could try this one from eHow.com ; http://www.ehow.com/how_6720319_make-solar-radiation-shield.html

The more adventurous might like this one from Weather-Watch.com as either passive or fan assisted ; http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php?topic=23736.0

We have confirmed that the following Software Works With Windows 7 32bit

• Davis WeatherLink 5.9 Onwards (also confirmed compatiable with Windows 7 64bit)

• Weather Display 10.37P Onwards (also confirmed compatiable with Windows 7 64bit)

• Weather Display Live

Software Confirmed as Incompatible

• Oregon Scientfic Weather OS 1.1

As yet the following have not been confirmed but will be tested in due course

• Heavy Weather 2300gb for the WS2350

• Weather Capture 1.1 Advanced

WeatherLink, Weather Display and Weather Capture Advanced are confirmed working on Windows 7 64bit