What Weather Service Do You Use

Planning trip home and need some help

We use the on-line National Weather Service Seattle reports for the waters in our area. The main thing we're interested is the wind. Sun, rain, fog, snow we don't care about.

As the area we typically boat has good digital coverage we tend to use the iPads for this. However we will also listen to the VHF weather broadcasts, too, particularly if we don't have good digital coverage or we're in Canada and don't want the digital roaming charges.

There are a lot of other weather services and features but for our boating the wind is all we really care about.

The app "dark sky" is one that I really like.

There's an app called Wind Alert that I really like. I find their wind predictions to be very accurate.

Passageweather.com

Bill Ranson said:

There's an app called Wind Alert that I really like. I find their wind predictions to be very accurate.

Click to expand...

I use iwindsurf.com

I think it uses the same data as wind alert

Incredibly accurate here in So Cal

Along the mid Atlantic, I could to better with a Ouija board guessing the weather than the National Weather Service does. For the forecasting of winds, I use intellicast.com and windfinder.com

Ted

Fishweather for wind forecasts
WeatherBug for live lightning (Spark) map and radar

I use Marine Weather by Accuweather. Seems to be as inaccurate as the others that I have used.

For wave height I like this one Tampa Bay Surf Report (STORMSURF)
It will open on Tampa Bay go below the map and click on the Gulf of Mexico "Sea State" icon on the MWX PRO control panel. Wind and precipitation forecast is also available.
For rin and storms I just check on the NOAA on vhf radio or various internet sites.
As you know Mobile bay and the Mississippi Sound can get choppy fast, Have a great trip.

We have used Omni Bob in the past and was very pleased with his services. He services the worlds oceans for all kinds of mariners. His price is reasonable too.


Home - www.oceanmarinenav.com

O C Diver said:

Along the mid Atlantic, I could to better with a Ouija board guessing the weather than the National Weather Service does. For the forecasting of winds, I use intellicast.com and windfinder.com

Ted

Click to expand...

So where do you think Windfinder, which I also use, and Intellicast get their weather?

The best NOAA site that I have found is this one. Keep touching the colored area until you get to your exact location. Then BOOM! Five day forecast.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/usamz.htm

Wxx3 said:

So where do you think Windfinder, which I also use, and Intellicast get their weather?

Click to expand...

Richard, I have no doubt that they use the same raw data, the forecast modeling software is totally different. NWS forecasting seems to be ok about 6 to 12 hours in advance. Windfinder and Intellicast are much more accurate out to 48 hours. Don't know what's happened to NWS in the last couple of years. Good example: brought my boat around from Ocean City, MD to Chesapeake Bay on Tuesday. It had blown 20+ knots from Sunday 09/20 to 09/27 with seas up to 10'. NWS had the forecast for Monday and Tuesday at 20 to 25 knots and 8 to 10' steep. Windfinder showed mostly 10 to 12 occasionally gusting to 15 and less than 7' with 10 to 11 second period. Intellicast indicated the same wind. Took the short window in spite of NWS forecast (small craft advisory), and went around in 10 to 12 knot winds and riding the troughs of 6' ground swells. NWS was forecasting 20 to 25 knots the whole day in spite of what the buoy was showing them. NWS should probably just use Windfinder's forecast.

Ted

Wxx3 said:

So where do you think Windfinder, which I also use, and Intellicast get their weather?

Click to expand...

From the Ouija board?

We affectionately refer to them as "The lying bastards at NOAA"

O C Diver said:

NWS forecasting seems to be ok about 6 to 12 hours in advance. Windfinder and Intellicast are much more accurate out to 48 hours. Don't know what's happened to NWS in the last couple of years.

Click to expand...

Over time we've found the NWS to be pretty accurate about what's going to happen in this area in terms of wind but not so good about when.

Granted, forecasting local winds in the maze of islands here is nearly impossible as it can be dead calm in one place and 25 knots a few miles away. So the best they can do is forecast a range, like 10 to 20 or 15 to 30.

If there was a wind forecast service that was more accurate for this area it would be nice but I suspect it's a near-impossible task.

I'm sure accuracy of forecasting varies quite a bit by region. When NOAA had local regional weather offices their forecasting was much better in the areas I run charters. In the era of smart phones and graphic weather forecasting websites, NWS would be out of business as far as delivering an inaccurate consumer product, if they weren't funded by my tax dollars.

Ted

Via the HF radio we get grib files which are free. Once a month or so we get this warning (the warning has been trimmed). Local knowledge is very important and we don't use just one source. The warning high lights some of the weak points in some weather sites. You get what you pay for IMHO.

Notes & WARNINGS:
This grib file is extracted from a computer forecast model. While such computer data can provide useful guidance for general wind flow, there are limitations which must be understood. 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). The network is complex, and any computer network is subject to hardware and software failures or human error which can effect accuracy or availability of data....You are getting a small part of the raw model data that the forecasters themselves use when writing a forecast, and it is your responsibility to make sure that the data is consistent with your local conditions and with the professionally-generated forecasts (e.g. text bulletins and weather-fax charts)....Grib data also has limitations along shore, where local effects often dominate and may not be adequately modeled. In addition these models cannot provide adequate prediction for tropical systems, frontal activity or convergence zones. For example, while global models can provide useful data on the likely track of hurricanes, they grossly underestimate the strength of hurricanes because of their small size compared to the model grid. For hurricane/cyclone forecasts, carefully monitor the appropriate warning messages and do not rely on grib data from any source. That all said, grib data can provide useful guidance not available elsewhere. Understand the limitations and use the data carefully. Grib data should be considered supplemental to other forecasts, and not be relied upon in lieu of professionally-generated charts or forecasts.

Noaa

Chris Parker

https://www.mwxc.com/

Because all the free ones have been mentioned

Sealife said:

Chris Parker

https://www.mwxc.com/

Because all the free ones have been mentioned

Click to expand...

Just curious how many members pay for Wx routing on here?

We use Windy Pro for day to day weather when we are out on our Lindell. Used Windy Pro for charters in Tahiti and Desolation and found it pretty accurate as well for those locations. When we did the Great Loop we used Commanders Weather to time the big bend crossing from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs (in our C-Dory 25 at the time). They called a great weather window, flat calm and we booked the crossing at 25 knots. It was nice to have some hand holding by Commanders and a Bertram 390 buddy boat that day.
Eric

Delete

I use an app called Predictwind. I know a lot of people that use Windy. I have both but am not warming up to Windy yet. If no service then the weather channel on the radio.

For US waters, windfinder.com is my go-to.

Wxx3 said:

So where do you think Windfinder, which I also use, and Intellicast get their weather?

Click to expand...

This is an important key point. These apps are just visualizing underlying data. And generally using the same underlying model data. The most common being the GFS and the ECMWF. Model resolution is important too. Some forecasting data points as tight as 9 and even 1 km but others are out to 25 km. The colors on the maps in the apps see just filling in the area between data points with their color gradient.

It's no secret that the GFS model is older and in the process of getting updated. Until then ECMWF seems to be more accurate most of the time.

Also, some have their own blended, proprietary models that use the very same underlying data. The predictwind PWG and PWE models are examples. Windy has quicklook and quicklook plus as well.

Best process is to map the forecasts for each model to the actual observed in the area of interest to get an index for your area. Windalert is an app that shows actuals from buoys and weather stations that can be used to compare to forecasted weather. Then determine which model has been more accurate recently given resolution and local environmental impacts such as various land masses that impact local weather but isn't taken into account in most models.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Delete

Click to expand...

Hah. I just noticed this was a 5 yr old thread resurrected.

www.seabreeze.com.au.
Offshore racing sailboats often engage David Badham, at a fee, a skilled forecaster, to advise on weather. Not just weather, but the location/direction of coastal currents,the use of which can greatly improve performance.

We use several sources, understanding that real time info originates from a large network of data sources and that publicly available forecasts are generated by a handful of governmental models. Free and low cost apps use the same models to generate their various presentations. Higher cost, generally subscription services, add expertise to provide another layer of interpretation to address more specific needs (location, forecast period, sailing, agriculture, ...

For our needs:

Actual: look at the sky, on-board Davis weather station, NOAA weather and tide stations, NOAA VHF broadcasts, MyRadar.

Forecasts: NWS local, Tropical Tidbits (several models, regions, timeframes and dozens of WX parameters). PredictWind, Windy, Passage Weather.

Subscription: Chris Parker’s daily web/SSB sessions for the Bahamas, Gulf Stream and occasional consult. Would like to have a WeatherBELL subscription.

Hurricane Season: NHC, Tropical Tidbits, Hurricane Tracker, Chris Parker, CERA (storm surge).

When cruising we spend 1-2 hours each day checking various sources to decide on where/when to go and to pick the best anchorage.

In the 90’s we cruised for 5 years in the Med, transatlantic and Caribbean. At that time we were thankful for HF forecasts from the U.S., BBC, Italian and Spanish WX services, sketchy SSB WX faxes and listening to Herb Hilgenberg on 12359 kHz during long passages.

Improvements in technology, modeling, and communications have provided improvements unimaginable at that time.

Thanks to NOAA, NWS, NHC and all the other weather services for maintaining the data collection systems, improving their models and trying their best to predict the future.

Safe travels.

Like many other of these sites, windfinder.com uses NOAA data; so jumping from one to another looking for difference forecasts is plain silly. It's the presentation at wf that I like.