Typical of this season

Boz

Boz

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I've been trying to get up the coast to Wells via Lowestoft two or three times this year but have so far not made it past Harwich, thwarted by the weather. I had planned for a week off from the 20th to try and get a bit further North...... but then I downloaded the gribs. A depression that covers the entire Eastern Atlantic! with a predicted centre pressure of 975mb would probably make for an interesting trip. Looks like it may have to be next season now...

Anybody else had their plans upset this season?

Regards
Boz
North Fambridge
 
Isn't that the nature of the beast?

Planned my first "foreign"...only taken 20 years....in the company of 2 others, one being the estimable "Gladys" of this forum. Got as far as Ramsgate, itself a first for me: a pre departure early morning conflab on the pontoons for the run to Boulogne, showed a perfect breeze, but not for the return the following week. So we turned and had a cracking reach along the north Kent coast and to the Medway, and stations north...great time nevertheless.
 
Laurie said:
Isn't that the nature of the beast?

Planned my first "foreign"...only taken 20 years....in the company of 2 others, one being the estimable "Gladys" of this forum. Got as far as Ramsgate, itself a first for me: a pre departure early morning conflab on the pontoons for the run to Boulogne, showed a perfect breeze, but not for the return the following week. So we turned and had a cracking reach along the north Kent coast and to the Medway, and stations north...great time nevertheless.
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That's the trouble with modern forecasts; they are too good. In the olden days (say 1978) we would just have set out in blissful ignorance and hoped for the best. It was a miracle that I only had to leave a boat abroad once in twenty years foreign cruising while I was still working.
 
johnalison said:
That's the trouble with modern forecasts; they are too good. In the olden days (say 1978) we would just have set out in blissful ignorance and hoped for the best. It was a miracle that I only had to leave a boat abroad once in twenty years foreign cruising while I was still working.
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They were spot on: we would have been punching a F5 northerly (wind over, to boot) to get back across the channel and on. In the event we were comfortably holed up in Burnham by the time the winds came....and I would not have chosen to be out, irrespective of direction, for pleasure. (Became F5-bottom 6)
It was "Gladys" that introduced me to "WindGuru" and some of the subtleties in interpreting some of the info. It proved itself, for otherwise I may have gone....and been stuck.

Oh, not to be working...in the best possible sense....
 
I'm sure weather forecasts have been done a thousand times on here, but I read somewhere recently that the Met office is about to invest :) a small fortune in two new super computers for Exeter - can we look forward to better and more distant forecasts?

To be fair, I do find the Gribs (I use Zygrib) to reasonably accurate. Most of the data is crunched by NOAA though
Regards
Boz
 
My main source ( having attended an EXCELLENT Met course run by Simon Rowell) is the Expert Charts on weatheronline.com. Although detail is difficult to forecast at any distance, the ECMWF (Reading University Euro centre for Met and weather forecasting) do a 500 hPa height chart. This effectivey shows you where the jet stream is going to lie, and is accurate enough about 2 weeks out. The lows we get are spun off the northern side of the jetstream track, so you can see whether your route/plan will be impacted... WOrks a treat, as Laurie of this parish has noted....
 
Thanks Gladys ..... I will explore the site with interest. As I said before I tend to use the Gribs, but often comparisons are useful. I suspect though most of the raw data comes from NOAA anyway and is then sometimes subjectively analysed.

The problem I have is the notice I have to give if I want time off, (at least a week). I wouldn't mind, but I'm supposed to be retired :)

thanks again for the information
Regards
Boz
 
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