Your fav apps for wind and weather forecast?

With so many out there and each one is someone’s favourite, it’s really personal preference but my way of choosing is to look at them all and pick the forecast that best suits what I need.
Usually works! (y)

As to mine, I use Windy and Magic Seaweed for the bigger picture and (a bit heretical here) the BBC for local.
 
This is a buoy which has been to rounded many times. Some comments:
  1. As several have said, correctly, there is little difference between the various forecasts. So, use the one thot you find easiest to get and use.
  2. Just about all the sources of objective, computer generated forecasts will, inter alia, provide output from the US GFS or are, in the case of “unofficial” detailed forecasts, based on the GFS.
  3. In recent years computer output from other countries has become available. DWD ICON, French ARPEGE, AROME are-two of the latest.
  4. Several posts have commented on “unofficial” detailed forecasts. To the best of my knowledge, none of these uses derailed data analyses. In practice that may not matter greatly. “Official” models use far more detailed analyses but may not be more useful. Small details have short lifetimes, often too short to be useful for most sailing purposes.
  5. GRIB data from, say, XyGrib (on a laptop only,) several tablet apps eg PocketGRIB, SailGrib all save the data automatically so that you can recover them later when off line or from previous days to see how the forecasts are changing. Some, XyGrib especially have several models global and limited area.
  6. windy.com and Ventusky.com (I like this more than Windy) both give good useful presentations from several models. Saving is only via screenshots.
  7. XCWeather and PassageWeather both provide the GFS in an easy to read form. Again, neither are saved automatically
  8. ECMWF and UK run their models on a 10 km grid. Most other countries us a grid of about 12-13 km. you may see models using longer, eg 50 km grids. These cannot be as good as models using the much smaller grids. The use of shorter grids may have reduced differences or uncertainties in data analyses so reducing appreciable differences in forecast.
Unfortunately, the U.K. Met Office does not make its GRIB data freely available. Maybe, at some stage this may change.

I ave a page on tablet apps at GRIB Files on a Tablet - Franks-Weather - The Weather Window and a listing of many forecasts at Listing of GRIB and other objective forecasts - Franks-Weather - The Weather Window.

There is no reason to pay for any forecast. You will not a better forecast. You may wish to pay for a particular presentation or ease of access. You may find a routeing service worth paying for.

For what it is worth, I use XyGrib on my laptop and PovketGrib on the Tablet. I like to look at Ventusky for its overall view. I have used Windy to compare 5 forecasts from different sources for the next 5 days. There is rarely any significant difference.
 
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If you have an Android device then I like to use SailGrib WR. With this I can choose a GRIB source and then a polar that is similar to my boat and get weather routing options.
Otherwise, Ventuski for an outlook

TudorSailor
 
Not an app, but a website: weatheronline.co.uk

With the cheap annual subscription you get access to the Expert charts which gives you GFS , ECMWF and a bunch of others with good visibility of the grid sizes etc.
It also gives the "Ensemble" charts, which can give you a feel for the likely accuracy, if you know what you're looking at (I am not sure I do).

Also Windguru for a quick point-specific forecast, and definitely Met office.

Bramblemet for weather reports in central and Eastern Solent.
 
Windy App allows you to choose the model you like best. Predictwind is fancy and do their own magic with the models.

They are forecasts and my experience has been varied so I don't bother with the smaller grid models anymore. Look at the big GFS and the big ECMwhaterver it's called and choose the one you like least. This way your disappointment level never gets too low :-)
 
No use in Croatia but I find Boatie an excellent site that include shipping forecast and port based local forecasts along with tidal information BUT it’s IOS only
 
I have just tried Xc weather & if I am correct it is a bit like wind guru ( but easier & better presented) in that it only shows a forecast for a particular place
Is that correct or am I using it incorrectly?
If I want to cross an area of sea there may be a weather stream in the middle that does not show on the towns each side so the info would be wrong. An example would be NE of the Dover strait, where a forecast for Ramsgate & Ostend would not record a higher wind strength in the area between
So something like Windy, which shows the wind patterns at sea is far more useful.
Am I correct in that assumption?
 
lampshuk said:
With the cheap annual subscription you get access to the Expert charts which gives you GFS , ECMWF and a bunch of others with good visibility of the grid sizes etc.
It also gives the "Ensemble" charts, which can give you a feel for the likely accuracy, if you know what you're looking at (I am not sure I do).
Click to expand...
Personally, I do not use ensembles. If you look ar Windy,com, you can see two global models and two limited area model forecasts out to 5 days. As far as I can see, differences are usually within the noise level of the weather. Even the very high resolution Meteo France AROME short period forecast looks little different from the global models. Using GRIBs from whichever model I use, I assume, on a 60-100 mile passage, that, at times, I will get winds up to one Beaufort higher and lower than predicted. I am never really surprised if I get short periods of 2 forces higher. Ensembles are run on coarser grids than the deterministic forecast. They are not intended to give alternative forecasts. They are run on a coarser grid and indicate how dependent the forecasts are on the initial data analysis.

But, if you like ensembles, try Probabilistic Wind Speed Guidance. Or Meteociel - Ensembles américains et canadiens.
 
Buck Turgidson said:
Windy App allows you to choose the model you like best. Predictwind is fancy and do their own magic with the models.

They are forecasts and my experience has been varied so I don't bother with the smaller grid models anymore. Look at the big GFS and the big ECMwhaterver it's called and choose the one you like least. This way your disappointment level never gets too low :)
Click to expand...
PW say that they use a 50km grid. That means that their initial analyses cannot resolve jet streams or surface patterns as well as a 10 or 12 km grid. Their forecast my well be useful enough bearing in mind the inherent variability of weather. Their forecasts cannot be better than, asymmetrical GFSM ICON, ECMWF.
Agree totally on detailed models.
 
Daydream believer said:
I have just tried Xc weather & if I am correct it is a bit like wind guru ( but easier & better presented) in that it only shows a forecast for a particular place
Is that correct or am I using it incorrectly?
If I want to cross an area of sea there may be a weather stream in the middle that does not show on the towns each side so the info would be wrong. An example would be NE of the Dover strait, where a forecast for Ramsgate & Ostend would not record a higher wind strength in the area between
So something like Windy, which shows the wind patterns at sea is far more useful.
Am I correct in that assumption?
Click to expand...
XCWeather is just one presentation of the US GFS. Using PocketGrib on a Tablet, you will the same information in a more useful form - in my opinion. By placing the centre of the display over any location, you can get a display of forecasts at that point at 3 hourly intervals. On a laptop, XYGrib will give the same info again. By right-click can get a time sequence at any point you select. These are not as quick to use as XCW but more useful and the data are saved automatically. Worthwhile a little experimentation at home.
 
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