The Weather

[daveylad]

Since I've been boating. fishing and using this site I've become almost obsessive about reading the weather, Wind and Swells in particular I've noticed the variations in the different readings that sites have and have now decided to use mainly Willy's Weather and Tugger's forecast. What are the most accurate sites other members use and why?

Looking at sites Thursday Friday seems to be shaping up at the moment for getting out there :fishing:

[tugger]

coastwatch is the main site i use as you can get the latest swell heights from the govt wave rider bouys and latest wind speed from stations in the bay and up and down the coast. it has the synoptic charts, tide times, satilite pictures, BOM latest predictions and fishing reports.

[uglyfish]

Yep Thursdays the pick of em, il be heading out nice n early see if I can get on to some reefies..

[dhess]

First up I look at seabreeze from about a few days to a week out. If the forecast on seabreeze looks good I will look closer at www.buoyweather.com and the computer model on BOM http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/marine/wind/index.jsp

Just before I leave I will have a look at wave height, period and direction on http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/coast_and_oceans/waves_and_storm_tides/wave_monitoring/

I find seabreeze pretty good all round.

A few observations about the various weather sites:

- Seabreeze is usually spot on when the forecast is for very light winds 0-10 knots.

- 10-15 knot forecasts on seabreeze often end up blowing 20-30+.

- Ironic I know, but seabreeze never factors in summer, afternoon seabreezes. 0-10knot forecasts in the afternoon will almost always end up 15-25.

-BOM tends to be overly pessimistic. e.g. Most 10-15knot forecasts end up 5-10. If the BOM forecast is amazing it should be a good day.

- Buoyweather is pretty reliable. If all three are saying good conditions you generally can't go wrong.