I use a Netatmo weather station with a rain gauge. If it does not have wind sensing capability, would that throw off the ET calculations? Should I switch to a weather station that has wind sensing? Thanks.
That’s a tough question, the weather data will definitely be more accurate since it is at your house, but without wind data could affect the calculation. We use a little less accurate algorithm without wind data, but I don’t know what kind of deviation you will see. You could try finding a PWS close to your house with wind data and see what the different observations are.
Having your own rain gauge might ultimately outweigh not having wind data, but tough to say for certain.
I think you also need to take a look at the climate and how much of a factor wind plays. Living in say the Northeast, I would say it is at best negligible. Living in the Southwest I would say it is critical. The high winds today bumped my ET over .2 vs .12 or so without wind. There is a fire weather warning today.
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