AcuRite Iris (01512MCB) Indoor/Outdoor Wireless Weather Station, Color Screen

Why it's worth it

A full 5-in-1 weather station with a wireless outdoor sensor for wind speed, direction, rainfall, and outdoor temperature and humidity, feeding a color console that also reads indoor conditions. It's overkill for one room and perfect for a garden.

This isn't really a hygrometer, and we're including it because a lot of people searching for one actually want this. The outdoor sensor array measures wind speed and direction, rainfall, barometric pressure, and outdoor temperature and humidity. The indoor console reads your house at the same time and pulls it all together — over 55 data points, plus automatic heat index and dew point.

Dew point and pressure trends are what a standalone hygrometer can never give you. If you garden, that combination is genuinely useful: you can see a front coming in through the pressure arrow, know whether last night's rain actually hit your yard rather than the airport ten miles away, and decide about frost cover based on your own microclimate instead of a regional forecast.

From our review of 6 hygrometers and humidity monitors, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +This isn't really a hygrometer, and we're including it because a lot of people searching for one actually want this
• +Dew point and pressure trends are what a standalone hygrometer can never give you
• +Setup is simpler than it looks

What to know

• –The outdoor sensor reads warm in direct summer sun — owners in hot climates report readings several degrees above their other…
• –It's a lot of product if your actual question is whether the nursery is too dry
• –A few owners note quirks in the rainfall totals, particularly around year-to-date tracking, where the console's numbers don't…