Davis weather stations routinely last over a decade with minimal maintenance. But it's never a bad idea to do annual preventative maintenance on your system. This year your trusty, hard-working, never-miss-a-data-packet station can get the royal treatment!

Here’s a step by step tutorial on how to do it. Your station will thank you with more years of reliable data.

We have a Complete Tune Up Kit for Vantage Pro2 and Complete Tune Up Kit Vantage Vue, with everything you need to give your station a spa day. You’ll save money and time.

(We've also got videos to walk you through

Firstly, to cover off measuring the actual depth of snow. By far the simplest method is to use a ruler! Remember that its just an indication of how much snow is on the ground, not how much snow has actually fallen, much may have melted or sublimated (evaporated, which can occur in very dry, sunny or windy conditions). Find a flat area (such as your lawn) away from drifts or any obstacle likely to have caused an obstruction to falling snow; even trees and bushes 2-3 metres away can create areas of uneven depth, especially when it has been windy. We measure to the nearest cm and report the snow depth at least once a day, at 09Z, if possible.

The amount of snow can also be measured by what is known as its 'water equivalent'. The problem is that unless you've got a heated rain gauge (and the UK Met Office does use these), any snow will not drip through into the tipping bucket mechanism either at all or at the time corresponding to that in which in fell in, unless it is very wet. If too

Davis are top-quality USA made weather instruments, built for long-term accuracy and reliability. However, they still benefit from a little TLC from time-to-time to help them continue to perform to their potential. Read on for tips on how to maintain and clean a Davis Vantage Vue or Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Station.

Anemometer

Your anemometer should provide years of service. In some areas however, spiders and insects can affect operation. If wind speed seems low, use an allen key wrench to loosen the setscrew on the side of the wind cups. Remove the wind cups, and clean the exposed portion of the shaft with a damp cloth

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

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