I did a 108-mile ride today. In central Florida. I captured several temperature sources. There are plenty of weather stations in close proximity. There is essentially no elevation change to impact temperatures. I captured the EDGE 1030 device temp, I captured a TEMPE sensor mounted under my aerobar pad (in the shade, but facing the asphalt). And I captured weather station actual temps and "feels like" temps. Every 5 minutes in the Device LOG file. This was a big loop so we switched among several weather stations along the route.
Some observations.
- The ride started out at 6:15am just before sunrise.
- There was cloud cover for a few hours, then direct/hot sun. We ran into a rain storm for 20 mins or so late in the ride (a variety of conditions)
- TEMPE temps were the most accurate and reliable.
- TEMPE seemed to track better to Feels Like than to WX actuals (surprising)
- Except earlier in the day, TEMPE was significantly higher than weather station temps (maybe road heat?)
- And when we hit the rain storm, the DEVICE and TEMPE recorded the actual cool air (16F lower than Feels Like)
So, no surprise, it looks like the TEMPE is the way to go.
Weather Station temps are reasonable if they are relatively close and at the same elevation as you, and there are no local events like a rain shower... too many gotchas to be trusted if you care about accurate temperature data. Device temps are reasonable at night, in doors, or under cloud cover, but will be way off under the direct sun...
