My makeshift Stephenson screen
At last, at the end of October I got my improved weather station established. I always knew my Stephenson screen would not easily fall over in that dense soil at Cae Non but I did not expect it to be such hard work ramming the stand deep enough down.
It took two attempts, two broken off struts and one broken louvre panel and yet it is still about 6 inches higher as I would have wished for. Anyway, there it is and the clay will hold it firmly in place.
The instruments inside
The instruments inside are the minimum/maximum thermometer which I transferred from under the now obsolete plant pots and a Mason hygrometer. The latter has a dry and wet bulb thermometer and from the difference between the two the relative humidity can be established by means of a slide rule.
Finally, attached to one of the bottom struts is another minimum/maximum thermometer, dangling just 5 cm (2 inches) above ground level so that I now also capture the grass minimum temperature and the first grass frost has already been recorded.
Further improvements and additions are already taking shape in my head and will gradually be implemented over the course of the next few months.