MacGregorSailors.com

Being relatively new to sailing, I have been spending some time trying to find the best website for sailing weather forcasts. Some websites I have found are "semi-usefull" and others are just crap. Seeing that I am about 2.5 hrs from the central coast of Ca, I would like to know if it is worth the drive over (while towing).

It would be great if some of you can post links to your favorite web weather site. Since most of these sites let you enter in the zip code for your desired area, it could be usefull to folks all over the US (world for our UK mac members)

Thanks

Rich

I like the NWS web resources, especially the graphical maps, and information from the nearest bouy at the National Data Bouy Center.

When in coastal areas, I prefer getting the tide and moon phase info from the Garmin BlueChart software (or off the Garmin itself), but if you don't have these, the free WXtide32 software is handy to have.

[on edit] Found Tides Online and other info from a link off Jesse's homepage.
--
Moe

Can't beat NOAA Weather at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ I have a link to it from my site at http://www.pacificstar.org (bottom of the page in the gray bar).

Jesse

www.weatherunderground.com - They have amatuer weatherstations hooked up if you scroll down from the starting point. I like it because there is a station right on the water where I sail and can get real time and detailed graphs of historical wind info.

www.intellicast.com - Has the best regional radar that I've seen.

Check your local colleges that have meteorological departments. Most have MM5 modeling that is very nice and very accurate.

The University of Washington up here does an excellent job and is a "secret weapon" of the academic racers up here. They are spot on even as to "where" the gradients are.

We typically use the 4km, 10m subdomain windspeed. They also do a great job with precipitation.

UW Atmos Site

wunderground for me

For $5 a year you get the no ads, no popups version

Saved my hide on Lake Ontario last summer - has a great live Doppler radar which I access from boat via wireless modem.

www.wunderground.com

Thanks for posting those guys.

Just for fun, I looked at the National Data Bouy Center.

Station 45002 - N MICHIGAN- Halfway between North Manitou and Washington Islands wrote: Wind Direction (WDIR): N ( 360 deg true )
Wind Speed (WSPD): 5.8 kts
Wind Gust (GST): 9.7 kts
Wave Height (WVHT): 1.3 ft
Dominant Wave Period (DPD): 3 sec
Atmospheric Pressure (PRES): 30.49 in
Pressure Tendency (PTDY): +0.00 in ( Steady )
Air Temperature (ATMP): 39.0 F
Water Temperature (WTMP): 49.8 F
Wind Chill (CHILL): 34.2 F

It is getting pretty cold where I sailed last summer!

I wonder if I could use a laptop hooked to a cell modem to pick these up out on the boat? I'd think there'd be a big gap in reception in that area.

Because I sail the Chesapeake.........I always found these useful
http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/CBOFS/wind_forecast.shtml
http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/CBOFS/wind_nowcast.shtml
www.noaa.gov

BOATUS is pretty good.

Here's their Marine Weather Center.

And their Hurricane Center is excellent.