I recently built myself an anemometer out of bar stock, coffee scoopers and automobile parts.
It uses an 8 pole magnetic sandwich out of a Chevy V8 distributor with a FET for the pickup, and that all works just fine. I used software called Winscope to verify the pulses and then bolted it to a Jeep bumper for a calibration run around the neighborhood! That was fun.
As expected by the Laws of Aerodynamics it turns 13 rpm (104 pulses) in a 1mph breeze, which I verified as 130 rpm at 10mph, 260 at 20 ... etc.
But now I need something like a microcontroller to count the pulses, do the math, and output a display every 60 seconds. It's kinda cool watching it twirl in the wind but how useful is that?
I know my way around general electronics. I can tell a cap from a resistor and understand basic transistor theory. Got a soldering iron. Don't laugh too hard but I built a tube tester in High School!
Programming tho. Uh-uh. I don't even know here to start.
So is there anyone out there who'd be willing to help a clueless Old Dog out, and here's my 1st question. What kind of device?
IIRC Embedded C and the Atmel AVR includes a weather project. More importantly for you, it introduces the C++ programming language. Since you already have some electronics ability the main difficulty, IMHO, will be climbing the initial near-vertical learning curve of C++.
The ultimate choice of processor might be better made after you know what else will be connected. Will the display be direct driven by I/O pins? IIC? Do you want remote accessibility? And so on.
Don't start out trying to build your weather station. Rather, get your feet wet with basic programming constructs like doing several things at once and switch debouncing. There's also a selection of prewritten examples in the IDE.
If you've got a couple of switches and resistors and LEDs lying around you can do some useful experimentation and there are any number of kits available with a collection of parts for doing all kinds of breadboard projects.
I've done this and it is so much fun. I can't address your questions tonight but will come back to you with some suggestions. It is so cool when your weather station tells you useful stuff