Weather Programs for MFD

How many of you have a weather program on your MFD?

Codger2 said:

How many of you have a weather program on your MFD?

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just as I thought.....:"Everyone talks about but never does a thing about the weather."

Nothing on our MFD's. XM weather is mediocre and not worth the money given the vast array of apps available today.

Windy (Android, iOS) on the Phone and Tablet for all things weather related. Wave Height, Wind Waves, Direction and Period and everything else weather

AdmiralS said:

Nothing on our MFD's. XM weather is mediocre and not worth the money given the vast array of apps available today.

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I've been experimenting with Theyr.com. The basics are free but you must subscribe if you want marine related weather.(Wave heights, wind waves, sea surface temps, barometric pressure, precipitation, etc.) It runs on my Raymarine and other MFDs as well as my home computer.
The forecasting is superb and moves graphically for a week or more. Cost for a year is about $99. ($8.33/mo.)

The more I use it, the better I like it!

https://www.theyr.com/

I used to use the NOAA forecasts from Weather Underground, but that's gone so now use this which I like even more, bookmarked for all the locations en route. Out of cell range, the EX channels on VHF are just fine for coastal cruising, couple with use of radar to track storms.

I prefer it on a separate screen as opposed to cluttering the nav system displays.

https://marineweather.net/coastal/cape-lookout-to-surf-city-nc-out-20-nm-coastal-forecast

Found the "Windy" to not always be accurate so am now using a combo of local national weather forcaster and an app called "Sailflow" https://www.sailflow.com which i find to be quite accurate.

I have been comparing Windy and Ventusky for a while now, and am slightly favoring Ventusky, mostly because of their several options to view wave heights and direction.
I.E. swell height, direction, and period vs wind wave height, direction and period.
Windy seens to be better for a broader local forecast mode, including a little more information such as cloud cover, moon phases, rise/set times, and general tides.
Still trying to find my way in this wonderful world.

Will second theyr.com on a raymarine mfd. With a single account you can use on both mfd and iPad.

Depends on what you mean by weather program. We have a Furuno PB 150 weather station on Blue Sky, and it gives us true wind speed and direction, air temp, and other non weather related info (such as rate of turn). All displayed in real time on the MFD.

TZTPro (and probably other versions of Nobeltecs software) has a pretty good weather overlay. It uses grib files freely downloadable.

I have a mini computer built in with 14" monitors . I then use Opencpn and their wfax addon . I can download all relevant Noaa charts using the internet, ( built into my Mini computer. The fax open cpn then overlays the 24, 36 48hr etc charts on to the open cpn chart program. Once I have downloaded 3-4 days of weather I can call any chart up and overlay it over the opencpn program chart.

AdmiralS said:

....... Wave Height, Wind Waves, Direction and Period and everything else weather

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On Windy, can you plot a course and follow it with weather forecasting? Their site shows that it can be done but nowhere can I find "how to plot the course."

Sirius Weather is an available option on our Furuno MFD... but I haven't bothered with that. And I guard the screen real estate on that a lot, anyway... so I also don't have the camera display option, don't use the engine display options, course compass, etc.

We do use Windy and NOAA weather on laptop, tablets, phones...

caltexflanc said:

I used to use the NOAA forecasts from Weather Underground, but that's gone so now use this which I like even more, bookmarked for all the locations en route. Out of cell range, the EX channels on VHF are just fine for coastal cruising, couple with use of radar to track storms.

I prefer it on a separate screen as opposed to cluttering the nav system displays.

https://marineweather.net/coastal/cape-lookout-to-surf-city-nc-out-20-nm-coastal-forecast

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In place of what WU had before, the NOAA marine forecasts are easily available in the BoatUS app.

Wifey just found that mareinweather.net website yesterday. Interesting; looks like a combo of NOAA marine forecasts and normal weather forecasts.

-Chris

Codger2 said:

On Windy, can you plot a course and follow it with weather forecasting? Their site shows that it can be done but nowhere can I find "how to plot the course."

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Well, after failing to "route plan" on my iPhone and my iMac, I went to my boat and "voila" it works on my 43" Samsung smart TV!
My iMac is 11 years old and does not have some of the latest revisions and I think that is the problem. Why it doesn't work on the iPhone is still a mystery.

I've had Sirius weather on Raymarine on the sailboat for years. It does nothing that freely available internet sources don't - but it does it when internet sources aren't available. I'be used it to dodge thunderstorm cells with lightening 200 miles offshore out in the Atlantic (it shows real time lightening strikes). If you are always in good internet coverage, then don't bother. But believe it or not, there are places on the planet with no radio waves.

For wind prediction PredictWind seems to be better than most of the others. For one thing, they show you 4 or 5 different models, which lets you judge the reliability of the forecasts. If they all agree, then it's probably going to happen.

Here's Sirius weather showing the eye of Hurricane Irene just to the west of us:

Codger2 said:

On Windy, can you plot a course and follow it with weather forecasting? Their site shows that it can be done but nowhere can I find "how to plot the course."

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Here's another Windy thread on that exact topic.
I posted a couple different ways to access route planning depending on whether you are on the Windy App or website.
https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49745