NASA Weatherman - How good for Southern Brittany?

[Cloven]

Planning to be in Southern Brittany next summer. Has anyone any experience of how good/accurate/detailed are the forecasts received by the NASA Weatherman for that area?

Also, already got Navtex, is it worth having both?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[HenryB]

The Weatherman receives the TTY forecasts frm the German Weather service. These are for specific locations and none are in Southern Brittany. You can see exactly what the weatherman displays at
http://www.dwd.de/de/WundK/W_aktuell/Seewetter/Streckenwetter.htm

IMHO these forecasts are very useful when you can't get access to the internet - i.e. out at sea or at some remote location - but you can get much more detailed weather information from (say) an internet cafe at most locations in Southern Brittany.

 

[Robin]

Don't bother! There are excellent forecasts available 4 times per day via VHF from the French CG and you really only need a basic bit of French (like a crib sheet with the weather terms translated). The forecasts are put out in sequence from different transmitters around the coast and normally you will be in range of one either side of your nearest one, thus giving you 3 opportunities to hear/understand it, each one transmits about 15 minutes after the previous one and always on the same working channel. These forecasts are 'rolling' in as much as in the morning you will get the day's forecast, the overnight forecast and the outlook, the next one will have the afternoons, overnights and next day/nights and so on. The forecasts are IMO very accurate and they will also include forecast for sea state and swell predicted. If in harbour the Capitanerie will have these posted, but generally just once per day. Additionally if you buy the local daily paper Le Telegram the marine forecasts are there too, penultimate page, also with outlooks.

Navtex I have found from Brest to be a bit hit and miss and anyway lacking in detail. The British Shipping Forecast too for Biscay will bear absolutely no resemblance to the inshore forecasts. We do have access to RTTY (Weatherman) forecasts via SSB and laptop but never bother with it.

Best plan IMO is to buy 'Votre Livre De Bord' almanac come Pilot come Log Book come Chart book come everything else at the first port of call, it has absolutely everything you need re weather times, English/French terms etc. Most harbour info is in English as well as French and it even covers the UK South Coast, plus from Holland to Gibralter! oh and it costs only about £15.

 

[Poignard]

I'd like to spend some time this winter practicising taking down French forecasts but the boat [and vhf] is laid up. Do you know of a French broadcast site transmitting shipping forecasts that I could receive on a normal domestic radio in the South East of England? I.e. the French equivelent of BBC R4's shipping and inshore forecasts.

 

[Robin]

I'll try and dig out the times and frequency, yes there is one on AM but I never listen to it. It might be shown on the link below which has a lot of info on French CROSS broadcasts.

French Weather info, Frank Singleton

 

[HenryB]

Radio France broadcast the coastal forecast on 162 khz (long wave) at 20.03 French time

They also broadcast the Atlantic forecast (all the sea areas across the Atlantic) at 11.30 UTC on 6175 khz (also 15300, 15515, 17570 and 21645 khz) You will need a "world band" type of receiver for those, but they are AM rather than SSB transmissions.

 

[Roberto]

agree with Robin, rtty german forecasts are for offshore areas, say a few hundred miles away, and most of the times they will have nothing in common with coastal weather..

re vhf, I personally find them very accurate, to be honest I have the impression that during summer they tend to overestimate wind speed by 1bft (or is it my anemometer?), but what matter is that they usually pick heavy weather well in advance

besides, whenever there is a forecast of 7+ bft, they will issue a BMS (bulletin meteo special), and announce it *before* reading the complete bulletin, and repeat usually every hour
just remember "grun fray" is 7bft, "koo d'vun" is 8bft, "fort coup de vent" is 9bft -

if you miss the bulletin, or parts of it, you may call the coastal signal stations on ch16 (called Semaphores, details on the livre de bord), they usually speak english and will happiliy re-read the bulletin to you
(much better to call the semaphores than the CROSSA, which handles all security traffic for the whole region and usually does not appreciate to be bothered for bulletins.. semaphores OTOH are fine)

on the net, you can listen to Offshore and Ocean forecasts here, they are not coastal though..

http://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/radio/prog/

at 2000ish you can listen to Meteo Marine
or

http://www.rfi.fr/radiofr/statiques/journauxMeteoMarine.asp

I should not have given you these addresses, as they speak very quickly and it is very difficult to understand, do not worry coastal forecasts are *A lot* easier to understand /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Birdseye]

definitely no point for southern brittany. in fact not much use outside the north sea and the med because thats what the forecasts are aimed at because thats where the german sailors mostly go.

much as I hate saying it, the froggie forecasts on vhf etc are quite good. take a pocket recorder (aka dictation machine) and use that to record the forecast if your frog is like mine.

 

[Cloven]

Thanks guys for all the advice. That's another £200 saved!!

 

[Norman_E]

You say not much good outside the North Sea and the Med. Does that include Turkish waters, or does it only cover the Western Med? There are plenty of German boats in Turkey.

 

[HenryB]

I found the German forecasts very useful when I sailed in Greece and Turkey. There are several forecast locations which cover the Turkish waters - Black Sea, N Aegean, S Aegean and Rhodes/Cyprus. The forecasts are for 5 or 6 days and, although not perfectly accurate, give a very good indication of weather trends. They also include wave heights which aren't included in all forecasts and which, in that part of the Med, are particularly steep and awkward. The Turkish forecasts on VHF and Navtex are not very accurate.

 

[charles_reed]

Wetterzentrale

which is the broadcast that the Weatherman uses has far too large areas for short-range forecasts, whether it's S Brittany or the Med, the only place the short range is sufficiently detailed is the N Sea.

The great benefit is the medium and long-range forecasts which allow you to forward plan with at least some indication of the likely weather over the next 5-7 days.

By the time you've got the Navtex weather report it's out of date, navtex IMHO is valuable for Pilot & Navigation notes - however French waters are well served for meteo, SMS, Mobile, VHF, posted at all the marinas and on the web. In fact I'd rate them as better and more comprehensive than the UK. They're available, in most cases, in English as well as French. Or trot along to one of the local Meteo offices and chat with the Met officer. The chaps in la Rochelle were extremely cooperative when I was cowering there in April 2001 waiting for a break in the (almost) continuous SW gales to get across to Santander.

Around Italian waters you've Metal Mickey on vhf 68, quite easily the most accurate of all the forecasts for central Med, tho' some are driven round the bend by the synthesised voice. The other advantage is that it's continuous and updated at 00.00, 06.00, 12.00, 18.00Z. You can usually get it in Greek waters and as far W as the Costa Brava.

 

[Poignard]

Thanks to those who kindly supplied information on French broadcast stations for me to practise listening to.

 

[Robin]

Just to add to the comments on the French VHF forecasts, unlike here they do allow in their predictions for windstrength and wind direction changes expected that are caused by the sea breeze. They also give local station reports including barometer readings on every broadcast.

One other point is the use of local Breton words, not difficult but added need to know. Maybe Roberto can list them but a couple from memory:-

Noroit = NW = nord ouest
Suroit = SW = sud ouest

'Du secteur' ouest/est/sud/nord is like the UK cop-out of '****erly which allows them to claim a correct forecast for a wind from anywhere between NNW-SSW if they said 'vent du secteur ouest'!