How to Set Your Barometer
To start with, here is a nice little tool to
Convert Units of Pressure
"to and from" different units of pressure.
You first need to find the correct barometric pressure for your area and elevation. There are a several ways to accomplish this. It can be done by calling the national weather service, a nearby airport, weather department at a local news outlet, or via the internet using near real time weather data from a location near you. I would advise several sources. You will probably notice that barometric pressure readings tend to be all over the map. Ofter times differing considerably! Try to find as many unique sources as possible in trying to zero in on the most accurate reading for your location. Depending on where you live will determine how hard it will be to find reliable barometric pressure sources.
For an FYI, atmospheric pressure decreases about 1 kilo pascal (kPa) for every 100 meters increase in elevation. The higher you are in elevation, the lower the barometric pressure when compared with sea level. If you think of air having weight, which it does, it is easier to understand that the higher in elevation you go, the less air over head and above you. Hense, with less air above you, the less the air actually weighs. In the most simplest of terms, this is what barometers measure.
If you can not find local barometric pressure readings, you will need to convert your barometric pressure reading to the correct sea level barometric pressure. You will need to add 1 kPa for every 100 meters that the weather station is above sea level. For example, if the station's barometric pressure at your location is 100.00 kPa, which is 211 meters above sea level, you would need to add 2.11 kPa to adjust to the correct sea level barometric pressure, which would be 102.00 kPa. To convert your kPa reading to another unit measure, you can use the above link to do so.
Although I have shown how to convert to the actual barometric pressure for those in the higher elevations, I prefer to adjust mine to the sea level reading. This way I can more accurately predict weather changes based on standard sea level readings.
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