Weather Service

Planning our summer stay in Fl, first long term stay on boat, and wondering what service to use to check weather for daily or longer outings. Do you use a paid service or is there free sites?

Yes, taxpayer supported NWS

Between 1 June and 30 November, I have always checked the National Hurricane Center on a daily basis and more often when storms are headed toward the east coast and every 3 hours if a storm looks really threatening.

National Hurricane Center

I also use this link for the NWS radar. I have selected the Central Florida area but you can select other areas on the bottom.

National Weather Service radar from Melbourne, FL

We pretty much settle on Weather Underground; we book marked various locations along the coast for both the land based (which includes a nice radar feature) and marine forecasts. Of course it is all NWS derived, but we like the bundling and format. Worked good on a phone too, even my then-Blackberry.

Florida isn't that difficult to forecast to quote Yogi Berra,You can observe a lot just by watching

My biggest concern is lightning which Sirius XM weather does an excellent job at in real time. The fronts and pressure gradients are also quite good and were a source I used in comms with Richard last year for his pond crossing. Ray marine, garmin and furuno all have a built in interface so you can overlay the weather info onto your chart display.


Via iPhone.

cafesport said:

Florida isn't that difficult to forecast to quote Yogi Berra,You can observe a lot just by watching

My biggest concern is lightning which Sirius XM weather does an excellent job at in real time. The fronts and pressure gradients are also quite good and were a source I used in comms with Richard last year for his pond crossing. Ray marine, garmin and furuno all have a built in interface so you can overlay the weather info onto your chart display.

Via iPhone.

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Yep. If I was in CONUS, I'd have the Sirius thing.

For non boat use, those middlemen providers are ok.

But they are often delayed concerning nws fcst amendments. I wouldn't use them for boat use.

Bacchus and I have been talking about putting together a weather thing. Maybe a wx section on TF

Then everyone could provide links to their favorite sites.

mmm I was just considering Sirus/XM weather add on......get sat radio too which I have in my truck.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

mmm I was just considering Sirus/XM weather add on......get sat radio too which I have in my truck.

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You may want to check as to Sirius Weather coverage in Canada for your cruise next year. I have found that both marine forecasts and GRIB files are quite adequate in PNW with many different internet sites providing great detailed information when you are near a WIFI shore station. Sensory overload almost.

sunchaser said:

You may want to check as to Sirius Weather coverage in Canada for your cruise next year. I have found that both marine forecasts and GRIB files are quite adequate in PNW with many different internet sites providing great detailed information when you are near a WIFI shore station. Sensory overload almost.

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Thanks

Don't forget:
National Weather Service

My brother in Washington uses it in Alaska and Canada. Here's a screenshot from my display here in Florida of that region.


Via iPhone.

cafesport said:

My brother in Washington uses it in Alaska and Canada. Here's a screenshot from my display here in Florida of that region.View attachment 39970


Via iPhone.

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Uses what?

Has anybody used Predict Wind?
Wind Forecast | Marine Wind Forecast | PredictWind

It looks kinda interesting but I am deferring a subscription until I have a longer cruise planned.

Sorry about that...Sirius XM.

I also had a subscription to predict the wind but I didn't renew it. I found that it's routing was no better than what I came up with using the available weather charts.


Via iPhone.

If you have an Android device, run, don't walk, to install WeatherBomb. It provides, for any location, fabulous seven-day animations of wind, precipitation and cloud cover on a map, plus very useful predictive graphs. It also allows you to optionally use the Canadian global model, which is generally better than the NWS model. Plus, it is FREE!

For those with Lowrance, their weather implementation from Sirius is "rinky dink" compared to Garmin. In Alaska you can't select any forecast zones. You do get wind forecasts and sea states off shore. You can also get current observations from some sites, but getting it to display is kind of like shooting flies on a target 100 yards away, hits are a random success. Talking to the factory reps at the Seattle Boat Show about it, was like carrying on a conversation with a brick. They didn't seem to care.

Even with the poor performance of Lowrance, I find the information I can coax out of the system well worth the monthly cost for the service for 4 months a year. It would be worth even more if I could get what Garmin seems to provide.

Tom

We use Weather Undergound for land based forecasts and Bouyweather and Chris Parker when we're out and about in the EC and Bahamas. You can tailor your subscription for the area and duration. What's nice with both of these, you have different options on receiving forecasts. We also like having at least 2 sources for weather.

Marine Weather Swell and Wind Forecasts | BUOYWEATHER.COM

https://www.mwxc.com/

Insequent;Has anybody used Predict Wind?

Yep, I use it for departure planning and weather routing. It works well for me.

Insequent said:

Has anybody used Predict Wind?
Wind Forecast | Marine Wind Forecast | PredictWind

It looks kinda interesting but I am deferring a subscription until I have a longer cruise planned.

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For Aussies, how about 7 Day Wind, Wave & Tide Weather Forecasts (including live wind reports) for Australia Free, and usually more accurate than/preferable to BOM (Bureau of Meteorology).

BruceK said:

For Aussies, how about 7 Day Wind, Wave & Tide Weather Forecasts (including live wind reports) for Australia Free, and usually more accurate than/preferable to BOM (Bureau of Meteorology).

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Bruce
Yes, I use that all the time for local trips. It seems pretty good for the areas it covers, but coverage is not very extensive.

Larry, good catch on Buoy Weather. I found that a lot of the serious offshore fisherman use Windfinder and/or Fish Weather. Didn't learn about them until we had semi-swallowed the anchor, but have been very useful here in NC.

For open water travel, those regional wind forecasts are OK...but for ICW and riverine work...better figure out how to guess your own wind.

Funneling and terrain following can alter those regional wind maps quite a bit. I have seen 45 degrees and 10+ knots difference regularly.

I wouldn't pay for some weather info unless someone forced me to..it's just not that much more a accurate than the free stuff and you experience is what really counts.

http://www.passageweather.com/

Insequent said:

Bruce
Yes, I use that all the time for local trips. It seems pretty good for the areas it covers, but coverage is not very extensive.

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True, it is limited to State capital cities.
There is a weather guru here, Ian Badham. He does weather forecasting, amongst other things, for Sydney-Hobart sailing race competitors, for a fee. They get everything, no just wind, wave, speed, direction,fronts, etc, and probably much more, but also coastal currents speed, direction, location and distance offshore, which can make a real difference to boatspeed. I don`t know what each boat pays, but there are usually 100+ entries, so there is a dollar in it. Most navigators are quite good at making their own weather predictions, but even good ones get his advice.

psneeld said:

...but for ICW and riverine work...better figure out how to guess your own wind.

Funneling and terrain following can alter those regional wind maps quite a bit. I have seen 45 degrees and 10+ knots difference regularly...

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Good point. Local influences can be/are a problem. Here's part of the weekly warning when we download Grib files.

...What you are receiving is a weather prediction generated by a computer run by NOAA/NCEP (GFS, WW3 models) or the US Navy (comaps, nogaps) and downloaded and processed by Saildocs (a service of Sailmail)...
Grib data also has limitations along shore, where local effects often dominate and may not be adequately modeled....

Larry M said:

Good point. Local influences can be/are a problem. Here's part of the weekly warning when we download Grib files.

...What you are receiving is a weather prediction generated by a computer run by NOAA/NCEP (GFS, WW3 models) or the US Navy (comaps, nogaps) and downloaded and processed by Saildocs (a service of Sailmail)...
Grib data also has limitations along shore, where local effects often dominate and may not be adequately modeled....

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I really notice how much direction change occurs at the Delaware River near the big bend at the Salem Nuclear Plant. The strong northwestern is in the fall seem to follow it right around. The one Funneling the surprised me was last year at Cove Point in the Chesapeake. The winds slowly increased 5 to 10 knots until the neck and then went back down as we made our way south.

After years of flying low level in canyons, depressions, between island cliffs, etc, etc...I would have never guessed relatively flat or very wide terrain would have such an effect.

Here is the forecast for this summer in Florida -High temperature 90 to 94 everyday from June 1 until Oct 30. Low temperature 80 to 84. First cold front early November
80% chance of rain every afternoon
40% chance of thunderstorms every day.
A chance of hurricanes from June 1 until November 1
Not much different from Louisiana.

yachtbrokerguy said:

Here is the forecast for this summer in Florida -High temperature 90 to 94 everyday from June 1 until Oct 30. Low temperature 80 to 84. First cold front early November
80% chance of rain every afternoon
40% chance of thunderstorms every day.
A chance of hurricanes from June 1 until November 1
Not much different from Louisiana.

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Think you pretty much nailed it nailed it!

Passage Weather .com

Then various weather and weather radar apps.

Other wise Tuckers forecast is spot on.

Lots of good links here:

National Weather Service Marine Forecasts

I am looking into Predictwind. They use 4 different computer models. They seem to agree for the first day or so, but after 3 days or so, they vary wildly, both in windspeed and direction.... any thoughts out there?