Mobile Grib

[franksingleton]

Does anyone use MobileGrib? I think it is Android only? Or has it died the death as can be the case.
From my perspective the most used GRIB packages are
PockerGrib, IOS/Android
SailGrib, Android
WeatherTrack, IOS,
Weather4D, IOS/Android

Are there any others that forumites find useful:

Please note, I am not asking about apps such as PassageWeather, XCWeather, Ventusky, Windy.

 

[Laser310]

If I understand.., it looks like you are asking for apps that download user-selected gribs to view and use locally, rather than apps hat just view remote weather data

LuckGrib - For both IOS and Mac

 

[Refueler]

Last time I used GRIB was when I had Maptech installed ... never bothered after ....

I find todays forecasts such as Windguru provide all I need along with sea state etc.

 

[franksingleton]

I am trying to update ReedsWeather Handbook to a third edition. Some people find PocketGrib, etc more useful than apps such as Passageweather etc.

 

[Plum]

Does anyone use MobileGrib? I think it is Android only? Or has it died the death as can be the case.
From my perspective the most used GRIB packages are
PockerGrib, IOS/Android
SailGrib, Android
WeatherTrack, IOS,
Weather4D, IOS/Android

Are there any others that forumites find useful:

Please note, I am not asking about apps such as PassageWeather, XCWeather, Ventusky, Windy.

I use PocketGrib on Android

 

[franksingleton]

Thank you for the inputs. I am trying to include all GRIB services that are used. I am not recommending any particular ones because there are no real differences in the quality of the forecasts. which one any person uses is really a matter of preference for presentation and ease of use. Opinions differ.

 

[RobbieW]

PocketGrib on Android, xyGrib on Windows & Linux

 

[GHA]

Pocketgrib on android to get a grib at some free wifi, then transfer across to xygrib/opencpn to view on laptop/RaspberryPi.

Path to file is /Android/data/com.nickobrennan/pocketgrib/files

& these days set xygrib to just show data points as that is all that is calculated. All the rest is just colouring in. But can be tempting to believe it...

 

[GHA]

Last time I used GRIB was when I had Maptech installed ... never bothered after ....

I find todays forecasts such as Windguru provide all I need along with sea state etc.

You are using gribs, the free apps generally all use gribs from the same free GFS USA weather model. Just coloured in a bit different.

 

[Refueler]

You are using gribs, the free apps generally all use gribs from the same free GFS USA weather model. Just coloured in a bit different.

Maybe ... but as I understand it - OP is talking about HIM using GRIB ...

Plus GRIB as I used - would overlay a chart display ... not a text base as such as Windguru.

 

[franksingleton]

I am interested in all marine forecasts, those that are broadcast under the GMDSS on VHF etc as well as all forecasts generated by computer models upon which GMDSS products depend.

In the OP I was asking specifically about those services that provide “raw” GRIB data as issued by national weather services and ECMWF. There are only a few. XyGrib for laptops, PocketGrib, SailGrib, WeatherTrack, Weather4D for tablets are the ones that I know about. There may be more. Some have ceased, iGrib for example. In my OP I was trying to ask if there were any more extant GRIB sources. Specifically, does MobileGrib still function as an Android app?


I am fairly well aware of many freely available apps that process GRIB data for you as well as commercial suppliers. I am fairly well up to speed on these bur am always interested to hear of any new ones.


In addition to my general interest as at Listing of GRIB and other objective forecasts - Franks-Weather - The Weather Window, I am revising Reeds Weather Handbook where I both try to give a list (non-judgemental) and discuss use of GRIBs. There is still a fair mount of misunderstanding about GRIB data, not helped by some commercial providers who are partial or economic with the truth.

 

[GHA]

Maybe ... but as I understand it - OP is talking about HIM using GRIB ...

Plus GRIB as I used - would overlay a chart display ... not a text base as such as Windguru.

Don't forget most of windguru et al are made up.
A single point with some wind, guts and wave data every 15Nm or so is what omes out o the models.
All those pretty minute by minute to within a few metres is all just made up interpolating a handful of data points.
Easy to think it's all real..
Like the wonderful Randell Reeves said - weather forecasts will be wrong can be very suggestive....

 

[bats]

Are there any others that forumites find useful:

+1 for OpenCPN on Win/Lin/Android.

 

[Refueler]

Don't forget most of windguru et al are made up.
A single point with some wind, guts and wave data every 15Nm or so is what omes out o the models.
All those pretty minute by minute to within a few metres is all just made up interpolating a handful of data points.
Easy to think it's all real..
Like the wonderful Randell Reeves said - weather forecasts will be wrong can be very suggestive....

All forecasting carries areas of interpolation -

As to where a person is - that will often determine what forecast he uses ... where I am in Baltic - Windguru (which was originally setup fort Surfers and Sailboarders) is actually surprisingly accurate ... so much so that myself and fellow RC'rs around here can decide what models will be flown based on the wind predictions etc.
When I'm going out of harbour here .. Windguru has not failed me yet ... in fact often better than forecast by Radio Latvia etc.

But I also accept that if I was in a different area - that accuracy may not be and would be looking / using another forecaster.

My post previously was not advocating to OP he use Windguru - I was just commenting on what I use and that I stopped using GRIB files. He may find it interesting enough .. who knows ?

 

[franksingleton]

+1 for OpenCPN on Win/Lin/Android.

Thank you. I keep forgetting that one. I assume it is GFS.

 

[franksingleton]

All forecasting carries areas of interpolation -

As to where a person is - that will often determine what forecast he uses ... where I am in Baltic - Windguru (which was originally setup fort Surfers and Sailboarders) is actually surprisingly accurate ... so much so that myself and fellow RC'rs around here can decide what models will be flown based on the wind predictions etc.
When I'm going out of harbour here .. Windguru has not failed me yet ... in fact often better than forecast by Radio Latvia etc.

But I also accept that if I was in a different area - that accuracy may not be and would be looking / using another forecaster.

My post previously was not advocating to OP he use Windguru - I was just commenting on what I use and that I stopped using GRIB files. He may find it interesting enough .. who knows ?

When someone says that they use Windy, Ventusky, Windguru, Predictwund, LuckjGrib and find them accurate, I have questions. First, which model? Each of these facilities has several models. Secondly, how do they define accuracy and how do they measure it?

Also remember that all forecast models have to smooth out their output during the forecast calculations. Smoothing is about 5 grid lengths. The ECMWF effective resolution is about 50 km. for most other global models it is about 65 km/ for ICON-EU, it is about 3 km. For detailed models such asAROME, it is about q0 I’m but detail of that size have very short lifetimes of a few hours. It is meaningless to interpolate GRIB output to a point. Equally, it is not very meaningful to verify a 50 or 60 km smoothed value against a value at a point.


I do not know why you say you are not using GRIB files. Windguru is simply extracting values from GRIB files. That is fine if you are staying put, not useful for a Channel crossing or sailing along the coast.

 

[franksingleton]

Deleted

 

[AntarcticPilot]

All forecasting carries areas of interpolation -

Ani't dat de troof! And 2.5d interpolation (interpolation of a field variable in two dimensions) is fraught with dangers and difficulties - there are many different techniques, each of which will give a different answer. Without even thinking hard, I can list 6 different methodologies, each radically different in the underlying mathematics! Small differences if the underlying data are well-conditioned and evenly distributed; massive differences if the data are patchy, have sudden changes or are non-existent! And the latter characterizes a lot of the data used in forecasting. Satellite data help, but very often the satellite isn't measuring what you'd like to know - it is measuring some physical quantity that is a proxy for the desired variable. Also, techniques that work over sea don't work over land and so on and so on! And then there is the issue that observations are often point data, and conditions at the observation point may not be a good representation of the data over a wider area.

@franksingleton will bear me out when I say that processing and ingesting observation data into any model is a large proportion of the actual technical difficulty!

 

[Refueler]

Blimey ... I don't see need to defend my use of - but here goes ..

1. I use Windguru because its served me well not only in Baltic when cruising around ... but also when conducting Ship to Ship work in various areas of the world. I don't sail big distances any more - so large area weather coverage is no longer my requirement. The areas I sail are well covered by ships etc. passing back weather reports to Met offices such as UK's.
2. Where Windguru or whatever program you use gets its data - I'm not really fussed about - it can be Uncle Tom Cobblies seaweed on veranda - if it predicts to a reasonable accuracy so I can go sailing with reasonable confidence - that's good enough for me.
3. Weather forecasts not only use data at the moment and systems movement - but also historical data - forecasters overlaying previous to try and predict the next days ...

I sailed on ships for years dutifully sending in Meteo Reports to UK Met Office (one of the worlds largest Meteo organisations with one of the three huge computers to work with USA etc. creating the world coverage model).
Many shipping companys paid Met Office for passage advisory's to assist in setting the voyage routes ... and it was not unusual for such passage routes to have odd errors.

As to why I don't use GRIB files direct ? Why ?? I get a reasonable forecast without delving into displaying GRIB overlays.

My definition of accuracy : If I read on my screen that weather will be xx ... yy ... zz... etc and for the next 3 or 4 days - that is what happens to a reasonable degree ... THAT I regard as accurate. I then accept that after 3 or 4 days - it cannot be as reliable ...

 

[GHA]

When I'm going out of harbour here .. Windguru has not failed me yet ... in fact often better than forecast by Radio Latvia etc.

But I also accept that if I was in a different area - that accuracy may not be and would be looking / using another forecaster.

When someone says that they use Windy, Ventusky, Windguru, Predictwund, LuckjGrib and find them accurate, I have questions. First, which model? Each of these facilities has several models. Secondly, how do they define accuracy and how do they measure it?

THis is so common, oh but my favourite app is better than the others. No it's not it's the same data. Plus with the massive human conformation bias we all are prone to you don't know it's better, you see what you want to see & doing any kind of accurate actual against forecast is extremely difficult or actually probably close to impossible for pretty much everyone on here. But doubt that will make any difference to your certainty..
Though I am in the middle of writing some node red which will get gfs data from openweathermap & graph it against what's happening at the masthead... Which should be interesting.

What is interesting..... On the Wind Sailing - Elliot Rappaport // Reading the Glass
Just started the book , great so far