Best resource for inshore weather for a week or so ahead?

[steve yates]

What do you guys use to choose a weather window for a trip?

I looked at met check and my weather pro app for next week, and one says tue is sunny, and wed has 11mm of rain, the other says ute has 4mm of rain and wed is good

From climbing, I know forecasts are a broad brush, are there any you find reasonably good for taking that right time off work?

On another note, I have the excellent TidesPlanner app on my iPad, but can't find it for the the little android tablet I got for taking on the boat. Is there an android version? Or one as good?

Thx.

 

[JumbleDuck]

What do you guys use to choose a weather window for a trip?

I find that WindGuru is generally pretty good for a week ahead on the west of Scotland and in the Irish Sea. Timings tend to wander round by +/- 1/2 day and wind strengths by +/- 5 kt, but on the whole if it says "southerly" then south winds turn up and if it says "windy", it blows a bit.

 

[bammylovechops]

We use Meteo Consult, seems pretty good to us.

 

[Leighb]

We use Meteo Consult, seems pretty good to us.

+1,
I like the smaller coastal areas they use, but it is difficult to be sure if the actual forecasts vary that much between say "Cromer to Harwich" and "Harwich to Foulness" it does seem more local than "Gibralatr Point to North Foreland" though.

 

[steve yates]

they both look good, thanks.

 

[RichardTaylor]

For Android try "Tide Prediction" which is free.

Weather I also use Wind Guru and also Weather Pro

 

[Twister_Ken]

Talk to weather pro and they will tell that past 3 days out, forecasts become increasingly unreliable. So looking for a week of spot-on forecasts is a bit hopeful.

 

[johnalison]

Sometimes the week's forecast can be very useful but a series of lows can usually be relied on to mess things up and make it unpredictable.

 

[simonjk]

Hi Steve,

I've been working on a detailed, week-10 day forecast video, updated daily. Is this the sort of thing you'd be looking for?

Simon

 

[steve yates]

I think most folk would like something like that simon

I realise its difficult to predict, but if I can take 5 days off, its very useful to be able to see in advance if taking them next week is a good idea or not, so I can schedule deskwork when the weather is crap

 

[Babylon]

Simon

Videos are interesting and frequently educational, but where it comes to forecasts, especially when using a smartphone on the boat, I personally prefer to read the data and/or its expert interpretation. Having said that, if a video can be kept terse and specific to our different sailing areas, then it would be of use.

Hope this helps.

 

[Birdseye]

Just done this exercise for the last week, day by day whilst waiting for a weather window round lands end. Ultimately they all cvoalesced into the same forecast for the 24 hours ahead with the exception of the inshre waters who ( as we all know and despite their denials) played safe with winds two BF higher. And the consensus forecast turned out to be near correct.

Who was the best 5 days ahead? My Weather 2 was pessimistic all the way through. Windguru was optimistic but not by a lot. Windfinder was OK and th French one Meteo Consult wasnt bad. At least the latter gives a numerical confidence factor which ( if you can count) helps a lot.

In short, its six of one and half a dozen of the others excetiong Inshore Waters who are the Meldew of weather sites.

P.S. If you have done your YM mand are happy with synoptic charts, the weather on line expert chart bit probably gives the best idea of the lot.

 

[ProDave]

nobody has mentioned passageweather.com

Handy to see how winds are going to move around over the week.

but often wildly wrong more than a few days ahead.

 

[Boz]

Most of these sites use GFS Data from NOAA, so it's sometimes difficult to understand how the forecasts differ anyway, but as said elsewhere there tends to be a convergence with 1 to 3 days ahead proving fairly reliable. Try this site if you like a visual representation with spot forecasts... https://www.windyty.com/?2015-07-12-18,50.464,3.582,6

Personally, I use Zygrib and Windguru Pro

 

[Boz]

Says it all ------ ish ----- http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/30235229

 

[trapezeartist]

I use Windfinder, which I think is the same data source as Wind Guru. The key benefit with Windfinder is that the finer grid, three day forecast (they call it "Superforecast") is free with Windfinder but a paid-for extra in Wind Guru. Accuracy is variable (this is weather forecasting, after all!) but I think it is as good as any other sources. I try to watch the key day from a few days ahead. If it stays the same, I feel justified in having confidence in it. If it keeps on changing, I have my doubts.

 

[Babylon]

I've always been pretty happy with these guys for "Days 4 to 8":

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/marine/weather?LEVEL=59&MENU=0&LANG=en&WIND=&KUST=03988&CEL=C&SI=bft

I particularly like the simple, easy to read layout.

 

[Hipchick]

I look at several sources, all mentioned, then I choose the one I like.

 

[steve yates]

Sigh.....
Forecast for Solway firth on fri.
Wind guru: nw,2-4 knots, gusts of 5 max.
Meteo consult: Nw, 13-16 knots, gusts of 23max.

I guess it comes down to go out and see, unless everything is forecasting gales

 

[Romeo]

I am a fan of Wind Guru. Observation finds it pretty accurate for 48 hours. Would not pin down an accurate weather window a week away though. I live in Scotland, so never really take much notice of whether it is going to be wet or sunny..... I will be going anyway.