A National Data Bouy Cener forecast. NOAA also provides access to radar loops throughout the U.S. (www.weather.gov/radar_tab.php). Even though the page is not formatted for smartphones, the images look quite good. The downside is that the site displays as one very large page. This requires that you to scroll extensively to find the region you want. You can reduce this effort by marking a "favorite" for your most common locations.
There are also many non-government websites that we have found useful. Our favorite may be Buoyweather (www.buoyweather.com). Buoyweather takes data from a wide variety of sources and condenses it into a highly usable and extremely accurate weather website. Its real strength lies in its offshore predictions. We don't leave an inlet without checking in and never make plans involving offshore travel without consulting this website.
Bouyweather gives you the information you need in a format that is quick and easy to understand. You can obtain 2-day forecasts at no charge, which is a great way to try out the site. Or you can pay a subscription to obtain 7-day predictions for $9.95 per month. You can access data formatted for a mobile phone under their "Wireless" section, though one drawback is the lack of smartphone formatting for the wind and wave charts.
Buoyweather has devised some great graphic layouts that present the data in a highly understandable way. With just a glance you have the general feel for conditions, yet it allows you to probe more deeply if you wish. We like their "flag system," which displays one of three flag colors to indicate the weather safety level.
Weather Underground offers onshore data, such as the radar images pictured here.
Green indicates "Conditions suitable for most marine activities," yellow is "Caution. Small Craft Advisory," and red warns "Hazardous Conditions. Use Extreme Caution." The chart of wind and wave conditions offers an intuitive way to visualize the predictions. We pay for the 7-day forecasts whenever we are cruising away from home, and find the site invaluable. You can turn your subscription off month to month if you wish. Our experience has been that Buoyweather's forecasts are not only the easiest to interpret, but are also the most accurate. We don't know how they do it; we just hope they don't stop!
How do you use this service on the water? An excerpt from our blog for March 1, 2007 as we waited out some bad weather in New Bern, N.C. provides some insight.
"We use this in our decision about moving the boat. If the flag is green for the duration of the passage, we go. If it's yellow, we usually don't go unless we completely understand the issue and will be well-protected. In addition, sometimes it is yellow before moving to green and we're often willing to put up with slightly more difficult conditions with the knowledge (hope?) that it will probably get better. We never, ever move if there is a red flag. Period."
WEATHER UNDERGROUND
PAW offers animated weather maps.
A good source for weather ashore is the Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com). It provides a 5-day forecast, access to radar images and other weather information. It even has a marine section that provides a rather limited marine forecast. You can select your location from popup lists of more common areas or by entering a zip code. There is an option for displaying the data in a "mobile" or "iPhone" format, which makes the information somewhat easier to access by phone, but it could use additional work to improve the presentation. Still, we find this to be the best general weather website for mobile use.
The University of Wisconsin has developed a mobile specific site called PAW, which stands for PDA Animated Weather (www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/paw/), that has more than 100 animated satellite and radar weather maps, as well as other visual displays such as surface temperature maps. The images are formatted to work with your smartphone. They provide a variety of ways to select your image, including by city, state, region and country. The site allows you to zoom and pan the map, access weather alerts, and read text-based weather forecasts. It is well worth spending some time with this site.
Many other websites exist, including the Weather Channel (www.weather.com). Ithas tools for mobile phones, some of which are free and some you must pay for. They typically offer a very limited marine forecast, but the data is excellent for onshore predictions. Most other websites are onshore specific, such as the AccuWeather site (www.accuweather.com). You can scroll down on the left side of their website to enter your mobile number and gain access. Both of these sites do some basic reformatting to the "normal" web page, which makes it easier to view on your smartphone.
