Weather radio
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA, has developed a radio that can warn people about the bad weather in advance. Whenever NOAA's storm prediction centre issues an alert, the radio automatically sends a tone. The radio costs about US $40. People can also turn their homes into local weather stations by using a weather station kit from Oregon Scientific, a company based in Portland, Oregon. The device costs about US $400, which includes a wind direction indicator, an anemometer for checking wind speed, a rain gauge for measuring daily rainfall and a sensor for detecting temperature and humidity levels. A control panel has been fitted with the kit that displays the readings and presents the forecast. Data regarding the forecast can be easily collected through a computer which can be connected with the weather kit. Davis Instruments of Hayward, California, has developed the Health EnviroMonitor that can measure temperature, humidity, solar radiation, ultraviolet radiation, and wind speed and direction ( Popular Science , Vol 251, No 2).