Advice sought for remote area weather data gathering
 

Hi!

A lot of what I see on the topic of weather data gathering is about
systems that are commercially available for gathering for home use. I'm
looking for a way to gather weather data in a remote part of Belize for
agricultural projects (forestry) where data needs to be gathered over a
large area (many square miles of varied terrain) and for a very long
period of time.

The main agricultural center isn't even "on the grid" and runs off of
alternative power means. I'm hoping to determine the best system (yet
affordable) for all of the traditional measurements on an hourly basis
BUT also to do this same thing from standalone stations (solar powered
with good data logging?) that might be checked for data (download on
demand) on a weekly basis.
-air temperature,
-surface temperature
-wind speed,
-wind gusts,
-wind direction,
-relative humidity,
-barometric pressure,
-rainfall totals,
-rainfall rates,
-dewpoint,
-some kind of solar index

Also:
-anything useful for fire management
-lightening strikes
-live remote monitors (in an attempt to provide visual scanning for what
were once staffed fire towers)

My goal is not to display weather live but gather data over the long
run. Data points probably need to be at least hourly but more frequent
if possible.

I've been plowing through all of the various tools available but don't
seem to find folks that can give me unbiased directions (everybody seems
to have a favorite or least liked tool).

Where do I go to get advice?

I just dropped in to this group and will watch for a while but would
appreciate direct copy by email to
mberigan at berigan dot com

Thanks
MattB
in Wisconsin but assisting folks in Belize