Brand new internet weather website
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Weather
Forum Discription: What is it up to?
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2889
Printed Date: 26 Jun 25 at 9:23am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Brand new internet weather website
Posted By: wbox
Subject: Brand new internet weather website
Date Posted: 22 Apr 07 at 8:46pm
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Hi everyone,
I'm a university student currently working on a disseration as part of my Geography degree. I'm trying to find ways to improve the presentation and overall quality of internet weather forecasts - making them more user specific and applying the forecasted weather conditions to where you'll be and what you'll be doing. As part of my background research, I'm just trying to get an insight into what you all think makes the perfect weather forecast for people who sail yachts and boats. If you could spare a couple of seconds quickly noting down ideas regarding the following points, I'd be really grateful! - What do YOU as a sailor require from an online weather website? - What are some of the problems you've encountered with them? - What changes would you suggest be made to them? - What would you like to see more /less of? Many thanks!! wbox. |
Replies:
Posted By: Jon Emmett
Date Posted: 22 Apr 07 at 10:57pm
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The perfect forecast needs to be accurate. So a model which handles gradient, sea breeze and topographical effects. It also needs to be precise by in terms of time and location. However due to the nature of weather you would never achieve a perfect model... So you would be better producing a very good one for a small area (for example Weymouth in preparation for 2012).
------------- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Your-Own-Tactics-Coach/dp/0470973218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312565831&sr=8-1 - |
Posted By: wbox
Date Posted: 22 Apr 07 at 10:59pm
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Thanks very much for that - I'll bear your comments in mind!
Please keep the suggestions coming!! |
Posted By: mu-6443
Date Posted: 01 May 07 at 6:26pm
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-Top Wind speeds -Take too long to load on windows 98 (I'm a cheapskate really) -less fancy side panels -More Inland focus ------------- TASAR 
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Posted By: Stefan Lloyd
Date Posted: 02 May 07 at 6:53am
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Sailors doing longer courses on the sea are very interested in changes in wind directions and strength, both in terms of location and timing. If you look at the custom forecasts prepared for race organisers and yacht owners wealthy enough to commission them, they have statements such as "along the coast, a gradient breeze of 3-4 knots and direction 150 will veer to 180 by 12:00 and 220 by 14:00, building to 12 knots. 10 miles offshore........etc. My experience of such forecasts is that they are rarely accurate!
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Posted By: Rob.e
Date Posted: 02 May 07 at 9:18pm
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Have a look at Chimet on the HISC website. It give actual windspeed/direction, plus a graph of the last few hours. Don't think you can get a more useful local site. ------------- |
Posted By: Stefan Lloyd
Date Posted: 03 May 07 at 7:10am
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"I'm trying to find ways to improve the presentation and overall quality of internet weather forecasts" Chimet and its sister sites are very interesting but they aren't forecasts.
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Posted By: TimC
Date Posted: 03 May 07 at 4:34pm
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Forecasts I currently use are *Weather Online ( http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/sail.htm - http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/sail.htm ) I like it because it gives weather a regular (3 hourly) intervals for the next seven days. It's great for offshore racing as it covers a whole sea area (we tend to race to Belgium/Holland/France from the UK) and it's good for inshore because on monday morning I can get a clue about next weekend and see how it develops during the week. One great bonus is that the site is simple enough to render well on a blackberry which is useful when away from a computer. And it's free! *Accuweather ( http://ukie.accuweather.com/ukie/sailing-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather - http://ukie.accuweather.com/ukie/sailing-forecast.asp?partne r=accuweather ) This is great because it's so local and the felixstowe data is smack where I do my racing most weekends. It's pretty accurate too with data for several parts of each day. I'd like it to be more long range of course but it's fine as it is. It's also free which is great. I guess what I like is -specific info, several points in a day -accuracy (obviously) -price ------------- J92s GBR 9224R "Upstart" twitter.com/upstart_racing |
Posted By: WildWood
Date Posted: 04 May 07 at 8:52am
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http://www.xcweather.co.uk - www.xcweather.co.uk - all you need really ------------- |
Posted By: radixon
Date Posted: 04 May 07 at 9:40pm
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http://www.windguru.com - www.windguru.com is great if your area is there. As for a good site, it needs to be accurate and displayed in a clear method all can understand, no bar graph things. So - Sun - Wind Direction - Wind speed - Cloud cover etc are all required in a picture format. ------------- |
Posted By: tack'ho
Date Posted: 10 May 07 at 8:55am
You can program your local lat and long in if your register, which is free! ------------- I might be sailing it, but it's still sh**e! |