Which on-line weather forecast do you use?

[+SidAndBob]

I've been using Metcheck for some time now, but once again I was disappointed by it's inaccuracy again today after another good soaking when it assured me everything was going to be OK.

There's loads of things I like about the site (It's free, 14 day forecast, 3 hr breakdown), but a forecast site is only any good if the forecasts are accurate.

 

I wondered which sites other cachers use and why. How accurate have you found them?

[+HazelS]

Hmmmm I find BBC a little inaccurate when you want a 10 day forecast, and so when I do, I use

Weather.co.uk

I have found it to be as accurate as any of them can be, and I like the fact that if I'm going abroad, I can use .com instead.

Edited September 6, 2008 by HazelS

[+Bear and Ragged]

Met Office, BBC, Weather.co.uk, http://weather.weatherbug.com/United%20Kin...tml?zcode=Z5467

 

Take all of them with a (large) pinch of salt!

Edited September 6, 2008 by Bear and Ragged

[+uktim]

I've been using Metcheck for some time now, but once again I was disappointed by it's inaccuracy again today after another good soaking when it assured me everything was going to be OK.

There's loads of things I like about the site (It's free, 14 day forecast, 3 hr breakdown), but a forecast site is only any good if the forecasts are accurate.

 

I wondered which sites other cachers use and why. How accurate have you found them?

 

When the weather really matters FNMOC is the only forecast I trust

[+Lime Candy]

I've used netweather.tv for some years and it's usually pretty accurate.

[+chizu]

I've aways assumed that they just all source the data from teh Met Office - is this not the case?

[+fat boy slow]

Lately I jusat tend to look at of the window .....

 

if it's raining then I'll get wet and whats new ?

 

If it's not raining ....

 

IT SOON WILL BE

[+dino-irl]

http://ukie.accuweather.com/adcbin/ukie/index.asp

[+The Blorenges]

I look at the Meteosat and NOAA satellite photos and work it out myself. With the weather as it is I don't have to be too accurate!

 

http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/auth.html (you have to register but it is free).

 

Chris (MrB)

[+hiho9]

i use a program on the pda...

 

edit: spb traveller is the program

Edited September 6, 2008 by hiho9

[+HazelS]

I find the best next day forcast for the Wirral / Merseyside / Cheshire to be this....

 

Grab hold of Stuey in Devon the night before...ask him if it's raining. If so - we generally have rain the next day!!

I don't think there's been a time it's failed me, but I've not experimented with it lately!!

[+CathyAB]

I find Metcheck to be one of the best to give some sort of an idea of what the weather is going to do, but it's absolutely impossible for them to pinpoint exactly where individual showers are going to turn up.

 

I find the Met Office rainfall radar is good to show how heavy the rain is, which direction it's travelling in and you can estimate how fast it's moving by working your way through the sequence of previous radars.

 

Rainfall radar

 

A good site to show current conditions is

 

Current conditions

 

And for anybody who like the old-fashioned charts with the pressure lines on, try

 

Met Office charts

[+Chaotica_UK]

I use a combination of Metcheck and Met office data. The 5 day forecasts are computer generated from one evolution of many calculated possabilities. On the whole Ive found Metcheck seems to be good for trend spotting past 3/4 days but no more than 7 or 8 and its pretty accurate for predicting 2/3 days. I also keep a copy of the met office rain radar on my favourites on my phone - surprising how useful that is!

Mark

[+The Wombles]

netweather.tv which is similar to metcheck in that it has free three hour forecasts but also monthly summaries.

 

I subscribed this year to get the local rain radar (5 minute updates, zooms to a postcode).

 

However, I've been disappointed with the accuracy of all the sites this year.

[andy_the_rocketeer]

Used to use Metcheck, but it does seem to be a bit less accurate than it used to be. Strange, cos most sites like that just derive a forecast straight from the GFS data.

 

Weather.co.uk is the most inaccurate one I've come across. The only one I've seen forecast 15C and Snowing in summer.

 

Anything more than about 3 days in the future is not worth relying upon, which is especially evident when you see the rapid deviation in the underlying GFS charts that all these service use. Only when there's a big slow moving high stuck over Europe can you rely on the post 3-day forecasts.

 

If you can read GFS ensemble charts then WetterZentrale is handy (I use that for snow forecasting in the alps).

http://85.214.49.20/wz/pics/MS_746_ens.png (replace the 746 with your nearest coordinates eg that chart is for 7 deg East / 46 deg North) Top Lines are temperature and bottom lines are Precipitation. For caching, MTBing, Skiing/Boarding, etc. in general we are looking for correlation between the precipitation curves, and in the case of skiing a correlation in the tempereature too (preferably cold rather than warm).

[+L8HNB]

The local guy on BBC Hereford & Worcester radio and their webpage is pretty good for round here.

 

Elswhere, it usually stays fine until it rains, or have I got that the wrong way 'round this year?

[+Lost in Space]

As a dear friend once told me: "If you can see the transmitter on Winter Hill, it is about to rain. If you can't see it, it is raining."

[+The Blorenges]

So what has happened to the seaweed and fircones then?

 

Chris (MrB)

[+rutson]

For mountain areas, I find this comprehensive and more accurate than anything else:

 

http://www.mwis.org.uk/areas.php

[+LinseyG]

There's loads of people that run their own weather stations - you can find them at http://www.wunderground.com - just search for where your going and you should find a station reasonably close with the added benefit of a real time feed on a lot of them.

 

Admittedly I tend to use this to work out if it's worth going flying (our strip is right next to the Severn so it's quite fog prone and the alveston weather station has a web cam on).

 

Linsey

[+Stuey]

I find the best next day forcast for the Wirral / Merseyside / Cheshire to be this....

 

Grab hold of Stuey in Devon the night before...ask him if it's raining. If so - we generally have rain the next day!!

I don't think there's been a time it's failed me, but I've not experimented with it lately!!

 

hehe. Hazel, it is dry today, so I predict dry weather for you tomorrow (having said that I have no idea which way the wind is blowing, lol).

 

In my experience, looking at a weather forecast is a waste of time more often than not. There are so many times in the past when I have cancelled a day out due to a wet weather forecast and then find out the weather has been fine.

 

I also work a few miles from the Met Office in Exeter, and they can't even get it right for Exeter!

[+keehotee]

 

I also work a few miles from the Met Office in Exeter, and they can't even get it right for Exeter!

 

Teehee - I worked there for 3 1/2 years, and the only accurate forecast was the weekend one they used to issue to Met Office staff on Friday lunchtime......

[+Mr Hedgehog]

I tend to start with www.weather.co.uk, and if I don't like what they're telling me, I look somewhere else, until I find one that I like the look of the forecast on.

[+Guinness70]

live precipitation radar

http://www.meteox.be/h.aspx?jaar=-3&soort=meteox3uur

and

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/

 

very good stuff there

[Ayondin]

I read somewhere that the Met Office accuracy was around 50%, whereas if you just go by - "the weather today will be the same as yesterday" you'll be right around 70% of the time