Weather Forecast Sources

[Guy Durham]

This one has probably been done to death?... but i thought I'd ask...

What weather forecasting service do you find the most accurate (preferably in oz  )

I mean, there are so many out there, and invariably they all contradict each other at least some of the time.

I look at a heap:

• Weatherzone
  BOM
  Willyweather
  Windfinder
  BuoyWeather

... and in using them all I honestly think all i achieve is confusion and indecision.

I'd like to be able to narrow down the field and have a bit more confidence in what is likely to happen, but i haven't been able to establish a trend in terms of strike rate.

Any thoughts folks?

[Luke Seyrek]

Hi Guy,

I have found that willy weather has been the most accurate for me the list you have provided.

[Graham Scott]

40%BOM 30%Seabreeze and 30% what I reckon.
None can accurately show local effects like land breezes and wind against tide etc

[Mark Harris]

It might not be the best source in Australia itself, but I really only look at the surfing forecast sites. 

The information I really want like swell direction and size, period of the waves, tidal ranges, wind speed, wind gusts as well as less important stuff like forecast precipitation is all covered in detail by these sites.

Have look at Magicseaweed.com and Windguru.cz.

[Warwick Joyce]

I use Bouy, for the reasons Mark has mentioned. It shows swell size, direction and time between swell. I also use in conjunction with BOM. A bit of local knowledge, typically I know if its a south easter I can look at the wind speed report at a place 100km SE from my location and I can near be certain that is what I will encounter even if the web sites say different.
Another good point is the swell direction vs wind direction, it can be sub 10knotts here but if the swell is running across the wind it still makes an unpleasant ride on the sea.

I personally have found Willy weather completely wrong on 2 occasions (20knotts) for my local area so will never look at that one again.

[Peter Childs]

I agree with Graham, a combination of BOM, SeaBreeze and a wetted finger in the air.

Dont overlook the current observations sections of both sites and compare to forecast wind directions - its often pretty easy to track a change moving up the coast using this system.

At the end of the day, none of them are perfect, and over time you can develop a bit of a nose for it yourself (which allows for local variability) if you regularly whatch the forecasts and observations in conjunction with the pressure charts - don't just rely on the weather man's interpretations.

All part of the sport really!

[Mark Harris]

I agree with Warwick that swell direction and period combined with wind direction is very important, and that;s why  I prefer the type of detail supplied by the surfing sites.

Very good example locally for me at the moment actually. We have 2.5-3 metre swells from the South but it is slow and barely a breath of wind, and the little wind there is, is just following the swell direction. In those circumstances, I have no problem going out it sea.   The swell, although large,  is slow and predictable and there is no wind chop at all.  On the flip-side, if there was a significant cross wind or opposing wind, even 2 metre swells make you think very carefully before leaving land.

[Chris Webster]

I use Bouy, for the reasons Mark has mentioned. It shows swell size, direction and time between swell. I also use in conjunction with BOM. A bit of local knowledge, typically I know if its a south easter I can look at the wind speed report at a place 100km SE from my location and I can near be certain that is what I will encounter even if the web sites say different.
Another good point is the swell direction vs wind direction, it can be sub 10knotts here but if the swell is running across the wind it still makes an unpleasant ride on the sea.

I personally have found Willy weather completely wrong on 2 occasions (20knotts) for my local area so will never look at that one again.

I like Willy Weather for the 'ease of use' factor but like Warwick i have found it to be completely wrong on several occasions.

[Graham Scott]

Speaking of weather it looks terrific up the whole east coast of Australia (at least where GT's live) so I will expect some reports on Monday

[Jason Tuang]

I used to use look at seabreeze and willyweather but now I just look at willyweather as it was more accurate on a few occasions.

[Warwick Joyce]

Speaking of weather it looks terrific up the whole east coast of Australia (at least where GT's live) so I will expect some reports on Monday

Won't be from me Graham a whole 7 days at home and the wind only drops out the day I have to go back to work
I'm counting on you and Travis

[Andrew Susani]

We use this for Mackay:

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/mackay

Good because it gives you wind and swell.

Also check the BOM forecast, just to be sure.  But windfinder is very reliable.

[Guy Durham]

Yeah, I haven't been using Windfinder for that long but have found on a couple of occasions that it has made more accurate predictions than BOM modelling.

In the end of the day, forecasting weather is a tough gig and I think they get pretty close to the mark more often than not these days. Much better than only a few years ago!

[Guy Durham]

Well, on this particular occasion I certainly do hope Windfinder is wrong.

If it really is -38deg C here tomorrow, I'm going to have a few problems. I feel so underprepared!