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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:13 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:38 pm
Posts: 25
Hello,

Thought this would be a good topic and educational for some like me!

I'm in the Northeast, Long Island Sound. Prevailing South Westerly.

I use three sites at the moment, but looking to expand and get more accuracy with wind forecasts:

1.) National Data Buoy Center - Unfortuntately this one buoy is out of service at the moment, but you can scoot down west to pick up the nearest operational beacon.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44039

2.) http://www.wunderground.com is my preferred weather site at the moment for local weather predictions and usually has a local station atop a building reporting wind direction other weather data.

3.) This comes from my pilot training as a student pilot. I think I'll be helping you guys get a new advantage here! Local airports have excellent up to the moment wind readings through METARS, a format for reporting weather information. You have to know the 4-letter station identifier for the nearest airport where you'll be sailing, for example, Van Nuys in California is " KVNY ". Make sure you choose the "translated" option or you'll be a bit confused on decoding the METAR. This is by far the best up to the moment weather you can get for free.

http://www.aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/


Ok, your turn to share how you do it!

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:35 am 
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Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 10:25 am
Posts: 4176
Location: Jersey Shore
1) National Weather Service Marine Forecasts: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm

2) iWindsurf forecasts & meter readings (costs about $100 per year): http://www.iwindsurf.com

3) Look out window at trees and/or drive up to beach and look at water.

sm


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:36 am 
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Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:29 pm
Posts: 2763
Location: High Point, NC
METARS is a great one for sure, but there is one more I'll add, don't laugh. There is an iPhone App for kite flyers. Yes, for people who fly kites (some people are just as serious about kite flying as some are about sailing). It's called "Windfinder Pro" and contains a truly large number of reporting locations.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:53 am 
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Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:41 pm
Posts: 14
Location: Clearwater, FL
Check this out, works really well.

I got from a wind surfing site.

http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=42063

This is my link for Clearwater, Fl. Find your own city, save in your "favorites" file on Internet Explorer, then comes up one click every time.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 8:21 am 
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Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:56 am
Posts: 27
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
I have a weather gadget on my google home page that shows a bunch of local weather stations & buoys in my area that I use for real time info.

I also live on magicseaweed.com to forcast surf conditions but since owning a boat now also look at the wind charts more closely.
That site is usually a pretty good forcasting site. I don't know about inland areas though, seams more of a coastal thing.

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:05 am 
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Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:33 am
Posts: 220
Location: Florida
Here's mine.

http://www.sailflow.com

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:25 am 
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Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:50 am
Posts: 378
Somebody shared this link with me a while back and I thought it was pretty cool. The data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) and is updated hourly (Note: You can drill down)

http://hint.fm/wind/


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:28 am 
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Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 8:28 am
Posts: 791
Location: Clinton Lake, KS
windfinder.com


They have a great app I have loaded on my phone.

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:36 am 
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Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 5:40 am
Posts: 463
Location: Metuchen NJ
besides the NOAA site and their observed bouy data readings I also use:

PredictWind.com and Windfinder.com

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:37 am 
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Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 10:33 am
Posts: 686
Location: Clinton, Mississippi
http://windmapper.com/

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:48 am 
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Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:42 pm
Posts: 274
Location: Sarasota Sailing Squadron
i use noaa

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... tType=text

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:59 am 
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Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:33 am
Posts: 220
Location: Florida
This one is pretty specific but I know Opti can use it.

http://isurus.mote.org/weather/newpass/Newpass_Weather.html

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:18 am 
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Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:42 pm
Posts: 274
Location: Sarasota Sailing Squadron
I did not know mote had the weather!

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:59 pm 
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Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:20 pm
Posts: 493
Location: Clearwater, FL
I like to use NOAA's Tides Online:
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/


For example, I use the NOAA Tides Online site for Panama City, FL:
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stationhome.html?id=8729210


The Aviation Weather Report also has some good forecasts.
For Panama City, FL, I use:

http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi?Submit=Go&sta=KPFN&state=FL

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