WEATHER AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.(News)

Most of us will never need our own pocket-sized weather station-unless we're looking for a job at The Weather Channel. But if you've drag raced lately, you know atmospheric condition info is important to engine tuning.

So when the Nielsen-Kellerman Kestrel 4000 pocket Weather Tracker arrived for evaluation, we thought, who better to put it through its paces than drag racer Doug Kalitta? We've seen the high-tech weather station team owner Connie Kalitta and crew chief Jim Oberhofer keep inside the trailer to make tuning decisions on the 7000-plus-hp NHRA Top Fuel dragster, so we know they use them.

The Kestrel runs on two AAA batteries, weighs 3.6 ounces, and measures among other things, barometric pressure, relative humidity, wind speed, and arcane readings of density altitude and wet bulb temperature.

We gave Oberhofer the Kestrel 4000 to use on the team's West Coast swing through Denver, Seattle and Northern California. Here's his assessment:

Weather is huge for us in making decisions about the tuneup. For every 400 feet of ...