Weather forecasts?

I was wondering if anyone knew of a site that gives accurate international weather forecasts.


So far the sites I use are BBC.com or Weather.com but they dont really seem to get the wind speed accurate. Id also prefer a site that lists the different wind speeds at different times in the day instead of just one forecast for the whole day.

Are there any programs with wind forecasts? something that shows the windspeed on the desktop?

Thanx,
Sarah

try wunderground.com

not sure if they handle Kuwait or not though.

Weather forecasting is too complex for the existing models, imo. Dependable accuracy is probably not available, yet.

Pete:

http://www.wunderground.com/

It seems to be pretty accurate here.

Doug

I'll try that site ty

any other suggestions? so that I could compare the results and choose the one thats more accurate?

Sarah,

The BEST windsite I've ever found:

WindGURU

I haven't found anything better. If you're interested in weather, why not check out the NOAA site(s)? You can get satellite temperature maps (IR)there.

Here in Southwest Florida, sailors are starting to pay much more attention to water temperature, especially over the Bahama Bank. Many of us feel local weather reporting is more an advertising medium than a public service.

Zee:

Here are a few

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/

http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage/LoadPage.aspx

http://www.worldweather.org/

Doug

John,

WindGURU is an awesome sight.

A little disappointed in no inland service though it did lead me to the "kitecat".

web page

John:

Go to our site. www.tcdyc.com and look in the photo/movie section. May have to register to get there. I am Hobie17 there. There is a nice video on the kite flying try the fleet did.

Doug

I use http://wwwa.accuweather.com/index-world.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0 and find it very good on the windspeeds. It gives forecasts for 15 days ahead. The next 5 days or so have hourly weather (including windspeed) available. I have found them to be very good, in that they provide average and gusts, where gusts can be double the average. The BBC etc seem to use the average alone, which can be misleading. I don't necessarily rely on the hourly prediction, but it gives a good idea of what will pass through on a given day.

There is a 'home page' for UK, USA, World, etc. And sometimes it defaults to 31 Dec in error - just press Refresh (F5) and you seem to get the proper day's weather shown.

Cheers
Simon

ty for the sites.
I'll test them all out and see which one gives me the more accurate prediction.

Windfinder is an interesting site, but they only have the southern Persian Gulf.

http://www.windfinder.com/forecasts/

For U.S. sailors, NOAA's Tides Online site has some great real-time data. Not all of the stations have wind displayed and it looks like some of the stations' wind sensors got knocked out. (Panama City Beach that I've noticed)

http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/
Ft Myers

www.iwindsurf.com.

Kitecat?

With the exception of a freak weather front, they can somewhat forecast the weather with some high accuracy these days with radar and human observation

Go to http://weather.noaa.gov/weather and go to the aviation routines, enter the local airport ICAO four letter identifier (KLAX not LAX, KMIA not MIA, or KPHL, …..) and this will give you a very accurate forecast as to what to expect that day from any airport in the world. There is some interpretation needed to understand the coding, and this site should help

http://www.met.tamu.edu/class/METAR/quick-metar.html

Note METARS (Aviation Routine Weather Report) are updated every hour, and TAF’s updated 4 time daily. If there is a freak event this in noted with a SPECI report issue ASAP. When planning my sailing day, I will look at the three airports near the area I will be sailing and with some interpolation I can get a strong idea as to what to expect. BTW – these are human and automated observations.

If there are any pilots on this group, you know the importance and the accuracy of these reports.

That's a great point about using the aviation weather. I run into issues where there are no airports with reliable reporting near where I sail so I just stopped using this resource.

the aviation information is usually better than anything else you will get.

Looking at the reports for airports 50 mile around BWI, I would say it was very windy (gusty) but somewhat overcast and cold day. Good sailing if you are prepared to brave the elements with the proper equipment and skill sets. I like the Peak Wind at BWI of 26 kts. If you go to AIRNAV.com you can usually get the WXASOS phone number.

I use to sail out of Rocky Point Park and relied on the weather report for Martin Field – where are you sailing from? If from Saint Mary’s well there is never any wind down there





******** Surface Observations ********
METAR KBWI 052154Z 30017G24KT 10SM FEW080 SCT120 BKN200 09/M06 A2984
RMK AO2 PK WND 31026/2113 SLP105 T00941056
METAR KFME 052206Z AUTO 28016G24KT 10SM BKN065 BKN075 09/M03 A2988
RM K AO1
no reports available for DMH
METAR KMTN 052152Z 28018G24KT 10SM SCT080 BKN150 11/M07 A2984
no reports available for CGS
no reports available for W29
no reports available for GAI
METAR KADW 052155Z 34015G20KT 7SM BKN065 10/M04 A2985 RMK SLP113
METAR KDCA 052152Z 31017G21KT 10SM BKN070 BKN120 11/M04 A2987 RMK
AO2 PK WND 31029/2120 SLP116 VIRGA N-E T01061039
no reports available for APG
no reports available for DMW
METAR KESN 052206Z AUTO 32018G23KT 10SM SCT085 10/M06 A2983 RMK
AO2
METAR KESN 052218Z AUTO 31014G17KT 10SM SCT085 10/M06 A2983 RMK
AO2
METAR KESN 052236Z AUTO 30013G24KT 10SM CLR 10/M06 A2984 RMK
AO2
METAR KFDK 052202Z AUTO 31015G20KT 10SM OVC060 07/M03 A2990 RMK AO2
METAR KFDK 052222Z AUTO 31015G24KT 10SM SCT050 OVC060 07/M04 A2990 RMK AO2
METAR KDAA 052156Z 32018G24KT 7SM SCT065 BKN080 BKN120 BKN200 10/M07
A2987 RMK SLP117
METAR KIAD 052152Z 30014G20KT 10SM BKN060 BKN200 10/M04 A2988 RMK
AO2 PK WND 32027/2138 SLP120 T01001039
no reports available for 1N0
no reports available for RJD
no reports available for LWX
METAR KJYO 052200Z AUTO 30013G21KT 10SM BKN060 09/M02 A2989 RMK AO2
METAR KJYO 052220Z AUTO 30013G23KT 10SM BKN060 BKN100 09/M02 A2989 RMK AO2
METAR KTHV 052153Z AUTO 32009KT 10SM SCT060 BKN120 07/M04 A2984 RMK
AO2 SLP109 T00671044
METAR KHEF 052155Z AUTO 30015G18KT 10SM CLR 09/M04 A2989 RMK AO1
no reports available for EVY



TAF KBWI 051721Z 051818 32014G28KT P6SM SCT060 SCT160 BKN250
FM2230 29009KT P6SM SCT100
TAF KMTN 051721Z 051818 29022G30KT P6SM FEW050 FEW150
FM2230 29009KT P6SM SCT100
TAF AMD KADW 052017 32020G30KT 9999 BKN050 BKN200 610507 520007
QNH2979INS
BECMG 2324 31009KT 9999 SCT050 QNH2991INS T13/21Z T03/09Z
AMD 2039
TAF KDCA 051721Z 051818 31021G27KT P6SM SCT050 SCT140 OVC250
FM2230 31009KT P6SM SCT100
TAF KDAA 051919 32015G25KT 9999 SCT050 BKN200 520009 QNH2985INS
BECMG 2324 33009KT 9999 SCT050 BKN200 QNH2992INS T12/21Z T03/09Z
LIMITED METWATCH 0601 TIL 0610
TAF KIAD 051721Z 051818 32021G29KT P6SM FEW060 SCT160 BKN250
FM2200 31007KT P6SM SCT100

Last season it was from Sandy Point just norht of the bridge. I am planning in heading out to Rehobeth or Ocean city and camping out for the weekend.

I found very few days with any decent wind in the Bay. Hard to believe Annapolis is the "Sailing Capitol of the US". I got spoiled with the ocean winds up in MA.

I'll have to check out Rocky Point. Right now my boat is stored in Curtiss Bay at my work.

SAT Strong winds from the S possible over southern False Bay at first becoming GALE-FORCE from the SSE later.
WINDS : Strong SSE winds later in the day
SUN GALE-FORCE winds from the ESE possible over southern False Bay changing to SE later.WINDS: Strong SE winds expected for most of the day
. WINDS : Strong SE winds expected for most of the day
MON Strong-GALE-FORCE winds from the SE possible over southern False Bay at first becoming GALE-FORCE from the SSE later.
WINDS : Strong SSE winds expected for most of the day

Best have a set of really small sails in Cape Town this weekend !