NOAA - the best feature for me as a bass fisherman.

[Darth-Baiter]

National Weather Service.   after that one event in my life where i thought my hobby was finally gonna kill me.   okay, i had my PFD on, and only had a few inexpensive rod/reel combos then, so i am being dramatic.  i decided it would be wise to check the weather before EVERY fishing trip.  (now i have added air conditions, via Purple Air)

 

i use NOAA.  

 

https://www.weather.gov/

 

there is a tabular forecast - under Additional Forecasts and Info.  (see below)  if you click that link, you can scroll to the moment (date/time) you hope to launch boat, kayak, bank fish..and it will tell you the weather broken down hour by hour.  

 

 

[TnRiver46]

I gave up checking weather forecasts many years ago 

[Bankc]

I have and use a couple of free weather apps on my phone.  I find they can often be pretty divergent from one another, but combined I have enough information to gauge whether or not I should be on the lake.  Some have radar video and some don't.  Some have breakdowns of the conditions every hour, some don't.  Some have more details like wind gusts or barometric pressure, and some don't.  Some are run by my local TV stations and have rebroadcasts of the weather reports.  But all are free.  

 

A couple of weeks ago I was about half an hour out on my kayak when I saw lightning in the distance.  I knew it was a possibility, but it was clear when I left the house.  The sun wasn't up yet, so I couldn't get an accurate judge on the storm's distance.  But in the past, I would have immediately turned around and went home.  You don't want to take chances with lighting in a boat.  But I pulled out my phone and opened the radar app and was able to see that it was just a small storm that was already north of me and heading northeast, getting further away by the minute.  So I was safe to keep going.  I kept checking my phone every 15 minutes, just to makes sure something new didn't pop up, as can happen around here.  But nothing did.  

[MN Fisher]

Considering that every other weather service out there - from your local radio station to Weather Channel - gets their data from NWS...I just go to 'The Source'.

[Darth-Baiter]

its the layout of the info.  

 

i dont care if Saturday morning is gusty..i need to know when on Saturday morning is it gusty.  

[MN Fisher]

^ You know they're just throwing darts in the back room for that...they don't 'know' exactly when such events will happen...just sometime in a 6-8 hour window.

[Darth-Baiter]

the NOAA tabular feature has been dang accurate.  +/- hour for the most part.    it is a fairly accurate dart.  

[TnRiver46]

I’m always looking around for a cliff or bridge or something, somewhere for temporary refuge. Spent 30-40 minutes under a bridge just last week haha. Put the rods down lightning all around. Had two weather checking friends with me, it wasn’t predicted

 

what I do like is live radar , that’s about it 

 

[K1500]

FishWeather gives good wind data, which matters a lot to me. 

[MN Fisher]

45 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

the NOAA tabular feature

Something like this? 'Hourly Graphical Forecast' on NWS

[gim]

Weather forecasters lie on a daily basis.  They get paid handsomely to do so and there are no ramifications for not getting it accurate.  Its the only job where they can just lie lie lie on the daily and still keep their job.  Kind of like a politician.

 

I wouldn't trust one as far as I could throw one.

[MN Fisher]

15 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I wouldn't trust one as far as I could throw one.

That's what my dad told me many-many moons ago - and his job in the Navy in the early-mid 50s was....wait for it...meteorologist.

[TnRiver46]

15 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

That's what my dad told me many-many moons ago - and his job in the Navy in the early-mid 50s was....wait for it...meteorologist.

Inside job 

[gim]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Had two weather checking friends with me, it wasn’t predicted

Its the exact opposite here.  They're relatively accurate at predicting hot, sunny, warm weather (high pressure).  They're absolutely terrible at predicting rain or snow (low pressure).  I've been watching a potential low pressure system that is supposed to be incoming to our region this weekend and it literally changes on the hour sometimes...which is perfectly fine, maybe their modeling is just not very good or accurate, but at least have the hindsight to admit it and stop pretending like you KNOW what's going to happen.  Some of them have the balls to say "expect 2 inches" of rain and we barely get enough to wet the ground.  That's weather terrorism to me. lol

 

You can only cry wolf some many times before people stop listening to you.  Then when the real big bad wolf shows up, no one is going to believe you.

[Team9nine]

Windy.com is the best overall I’ve found for assessing current conditions. Radar, cloud cover, wind, lightning strike detector, and isobars are the most frequent things I watch closely.

[slonezp]

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I gave up checking weather forecasts many years ago 

[Dwight Hottle]

15 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Windy.com is the best overall I’ve found for assessing current conditions. Radar, cloud cover, wind, lightning strike detector, and isobars are the most frequent things I watch closely.

X2

I wind surf is another good one. 

[Bankc]

20 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Considering that every other weather service out there - from your local radio station to Weather Channel - gets their data from NWS...I just go to 'The Source'.

Not always.  Here in Oklahoma, most of the local TV stations have their own radars that are newer, more advanced and aren't a part of the NWS network.  They keep them proprietary, so that viewers will tune into their stations first during severe weather.  They also have some of the best meteorologists in the business.  Of course, Oklahoma is kind of an outlier, as we have some of the most severe and unpredictable weather in the U.S.  And with all of them tornadoes, weather is big business here.  So they have incentive to invest big bucks in stuff like that that most other TV stations don't.  

 

Everyone in Oklahoma is a certified weather expert.  It's on the back of your driver's license.  You'll hear locals say stuff like, "You better keep an eye on that hook echo in the screaming eagle to make sure that mesocyclone doesn't occlude.  Cause if it does, you better git in your fraidy hole, quick!"   

[Susky River Rat]

I check the weather channel app and the river gauge. I plan my day from there. I have my guide lines in my head I follow.

[casts_by_fly]

I think it was @A-Jay that turned me on to weather underground from his posts here.  very customizable, free.  It has been very accurate if you know how to read it.  It uses weather stations from backyards, businesses, and various other places all connected to a central server.  You're getting real time weather monitoring for current data.  From there, the model can adjust the forecast.  Its been very accurate for me.  Obviously the further into the future you go the more uncertainty, but the 3-5 day outlook is pretty close.  I don't know what model they use for predictions.

 

 

The wind predictions are usually good on WU, but I find windfinder to be better plus has a better visual.  I don't mind if its windy, but I want to know where its coming from so I can pick my lake accordingly.  A strong wind from the south west and I don't fish 'budd lake' on this map.  A 10 mph wind there whips across the top of the mountain and will turn into hefty whitecaps with few places to get away from them.  A 10 mph wind from the north west though gets blocked by the mountain on that side of the lake and gives pretty calm conditions.  At a minimum the whole north west side of the lake is fishable.

 

 

 

21 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

^ You know they're just throwing darts in the back room for that...they don't 'know' exactly when such events will happen...just sometime in a 6-8 hour window.

 

You were referring to wind above.  Speaking to wind, windfinder has been very accurate for me and I plan to it within a 24 hour bracket for both hunting and fishing.  For today for instance, its saying 6 mph winds now, dying down to 3 mph by 5 pm.  That concurs with WU also.  6 mph is accurate for what I'm seeing out there now.  I'm going to be in my stand by 230 or so using the wind to mask my noise.  By 5 pm its going to be pretty still (and the wind is shifting a little).  Tomorrow looks the same and I'd plan for that too.  But I might go fishing instead.

 

[thediscochef]

On 9/20/2023 at 12:14 PM, Darth-Baiter said:

National Weather Service.   after that one event in my life where i thought my hobby was finally gonna kill me.   okay, i had my PFD on, and only had a few inexpensive rod/reel combos then, so i am being dramatic.  i decided it would be wise to check the weather before EVERY fishing trip.  (now i have added air conditions, via Purple Air)

 

i use NOAA.  

 

https://www.weather.gov/

 

there is a tabular forecast - under Additional Forecasts and Info.  (see below)  if you click that link, you can scroll to the moment (date/time) you hope to launch boat, kayak, bank fish..and it will tell you the weather broken down hour by hour.  

 

 

this page is persistently open in my phone's web browser, for Lake Ray Roberts. Well, this and also the three day history. Surface pressure has been my best bite predictor since the beginning of August. So many decisions can be made on just this page.

[scaleface]

The forecast here are highly accurate for temps, cloud cover and precipitation but not wind.  Last weeks predicted 5 mph wind had gust so strong that lily pad leaves were being ripped from plants. A whirlwind had them flying in the air like Dorothy from Kansas.

[ironbjorn]

The forecasts here are rarely wrong. Super accurate up to a week out. Usually the only time things don't always go as predicted is with summer pop-ups, but if you know anything about weather those are highly unpredictable.

[einscodek]

Yes remember these forecasts are generalized for an area like zip code so the air temps in the area will generally be accurate nearterm within a day or two but if your looking for definitive probability of rain and wind in your specific location, I look to radar and tracking over time for the front.

[Darth-Baiter]

i'm checking it now for Manana!

looks like manageable kayak winds tomorrow on the CA Delta!  6am launch, and go until the wind gets double digits.  with this, i know when i have to point my kayak towards my truck.

 

tide is kinda sucky