I am new to the site I started out with just an outdoor/indoor temp. I enjoyed that very much so I started with a novice weather station. I bought a basic weather station (La Crosse model WS-1611twc-IT) picked it up at B.J.
Where are you located? That will have a big impact on your lightning risk. How tall are the trees relative to the chimney?
If your prevailing wind is partially blocked by a tree or trees or hedge, you are best just to get as much height as possible. Ie 10ft above the roofline would be a guideline. Yes I would add an earthing strap to it and hardwire to an earth stake. The La Crosse weather stations (mine is a WS2310 series), do tend to have a cable quality issue leading to false wind spikes and this can be eliminated with using CAT5 network cable instead of the cheap Telephone flat two pair CAT3 cable. There is a thread and links for photo instructions on replacing the cables. This weather hobby can be a bug… 