Should I compensate my home barometer for altitude when using airport pressure?

[Victoria97]

I’m trying to calibrate my home weather station’s barometer using the local airport’s reported sea level pressure, but my elevation is only about 50 meters above theirs. Is that difference even worth correcting for, or is it within the margin of error for a basic sensor? I’m not sure if I’m overcomplicating this.

[Mason_H]

At 50 m higher, the pressure is roughly 6 hPa lower than the sea level value. A basic home sensor can drift around 0.5–1.5 hPa and shifts with temperature, so that offset is noticeable if you want to line up with airport QNH. If you mostly want to track changes over hours, you can skip the exact sea level correction and just watch the trend.

[KennethXS]

I tried fixing it by nudging the reading by 6 hPa for a month, then a heatwave came and the tune felt off again. The trend mattered more than the absolute number, so I stopped fussing and used the raw data to watch pressure moves.

[HannahQH]

I kept the sensor on a windowsill and noticed the heat and sun baked the housing a little, which barely changes the pressure reading but makes me doubt the 'correct' value. The altitude offset exists regardless, even if the exact number shifts a bit with placement and temp.

[Olivia91]

Do you actually need the sea level calibration if your goal is to predict rain in the next day or two?