[SPAM] [at-l] Re: watches

[gregbrown at mindspring.com (Greg Brown)]

>
>   me. Question: Does knowing the barometer readings help in predicting
>   the upcoming weather? That could be useful. [...]
>
Yes, it does.  Rises and falls in barometric pressure indicate changes 
in weather.   I have used a Brunton Sherpa for years when outdoors for 
that very reason.  The Sherpa (which I do not think is produced any 
longer) displays a historical 16 hour pressure graph.  The rule of 
thumb is, and it's not exact for fairly close, is the faster the 
pressure drops the more quickly a storm, or weather change, will move 
in.  The good news is the storm is moving quickly so it will most 
likely be gone quickly as well.  A gradual decline means that the rain 
will be around for a good bit of time, so plan on wearing the rain gear 
all day.  The graph is going down slowly and it already is raining you 
are in for a true long-term soaker.  :)

Years ago I wrote an article on-line about this very topic for the Jeep 
crowd, when I was into such things.  The idea behind the article was 
using the data to decide if you could leave the top and doors off all 
day without worrying about rain.  Looking back at the text the article 
is an embarrassment and I would have written it quite differently 
today.  Oh well. :)

While surfing for a watch/sherpa combo I came cross this thing, which 
only only has pressure (and a 9 hour graph) but temp, windchill, wind 
speed (which I find fairly useless on my Serpa), time, alarm, and just 
about everything else except GPS.  Can't have everything, I guess, but 
this thing sure looks like a winner.  I hope it is light enough to 
actually consider using.

http://www.ambientweather.com/wwwewapro.html

Greg