Momelettes.com  Moms are beaten and fried. These tech tips will help.

Every morning when I’m at my kitchen pouring coffee, I can glance over and see a few key pieces of information I need to start my day:

• The indoor temperature
• The outdoor temperature/humidity
• What kind of layers I need to wear

It’s all thanks to my wireless weather station - a small kitchen gadget I can’t live without.

We’ve always had a basic one on the windowsill telling me the basic information, but then one day the device got hosed during a battery change operation gone awry (at least that’s what I THINK happened). Horrors, I was lost without it. I had to go outside to see what the weather was! Oh, the humanity! (In all fairness, if you live in the New England area, the weather can LOOK like it’s doing one thing, while it’s really something completely different.)

When I was shopping for a new device, I was pleasantly surprised to see how the technology had improved during the years that we had our existing weather station. I was immediately hooked on a low-cost model from La Crosse Technologies (model WS-9611U) that featured someone affectionately dubbed by all users as “Weatherboy“; a small man dressed up in the appropriate clothing for the day.

Here’s a picture, though I’ll be honest, the device was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It currently sits on my counter near the sink, measuring in at the size of a 4×6 photo.

I’ll back up. A wireless weather station works like this:

1. There are two units; the weather station, and a wireless outdoor receiver (shown, right) that can be stashed somewhere outside.
2. When batteries are placed in each unit, they talk to each other and the weather station receives data from the outdoor receiver.
3. Once connected and the receiver is outside, it can tell you all sorts of information, such as the indoor/outdoor humidity, temperature, and upcoming weather indicators via barometric pressure (such as whether the weather will improve or get worse in the next few days).

There are many, many varieties of weather station, ranging in price as the feature list varies. You can get them at any hardware store, Home Depot, or Lowes. However, I wouldn’t buy any brand other than La Crosse Technologies. The brand is affordable, and delivers a solid product.

The WS-9611does the following (and more):

• Displays “Weatherboy” based on forecasts from barometric pressure (possible images on the right)
• Displays indoor humidity
• Displays outdoor temperature
• Displays sunrise/sunset times
• Displays current date/time
• Acts as an alarm clock
• Wall hanging or free standing

I can’t wait until Zoë is a little older, it will be a blast to teach her how to look at Weatherboy and explain what the temperatures mean and how it all works. Upon reading the Amazon.com reviews, one lady had written in to say that her mother called every morning to ask what Weatherboy was wearing that day!

Although you can buy it almost anywhere, the lowest price (as usual) comes from Amazon.com for about $30: