best websites for wind/wave forecasts?

[bdrieck]

I've used NOAA but wondering if you folks have some favorite website links that you use. as I have to travel a ways to fish the port clinton of Erie I like to find sites that have a week or two of data for wind speed/direction and wave forcasts.

thanks
B

[Polar Eyes]

In my mind, NOAA is the Standard, but here are a few others I check:

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/south_bass_island

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/m...buoy_lake_erie

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwher...=95&siteID=849

http://windmapper.com/GL/forecast

I sort of take what all of the sites predict and aggregate them into my own "forecast".

In terms of wind & wave forecast, anything beyond 5 days is a crap shoot. You may find someone forecasting it, but its only slightly better than an educated guess.

[The Baron]

If you go back to feb 19 a few guys posted western basin weather links thread

[Buc-Eye]

http://www.wbsa.us/index.php?page=denied


I like to use the real time wind speed and direction from the South bass weather station.

[wakina]

In my mind, NOAA is the Standard, but here are a few others I check:

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/south_bass_island

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/m...buoy_lake_erie

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwher...=95&siteID=849

http://windmapper.com/GL/forecast

I sort of take what all of the sites predict and aggregate them into my own "forecast".

In terms of wind & wave forecast, anything beyond 5 days is a crap shoot. You may find someone forecasting it, but its only slightly better than an educated guess.

I must respectfully disagree with the NOAA analogy. I have found them to be the most inaccurate weather forecaster available for lake Erie. Their forecasts leads to more disappointed fishermen than all the rest combined. They are most often wrong in wind speed and direction. They will lead people to stay home when the lake is fine and entice you to come with a favorable forecast when it is not only not fit to be on the lake but dangerous as well. NOAA and their weather buoys and weather station reports are much more accurate and directly conflict with their written forecast for either the inshore forecast or the open water forecast only because they're real time reports and not forecasts.

[bdrieck]

Thanks to all. are there any buoys in the port clinton / island areas that are giving water temp?

[pimplepounder]

I forgot to mention free App for smartphone too. Kinda nice when your at work thinking about making a run to the lake.

[pimplepounder]

Some how my message got deleted. I use www.bouyweather.com It gives a wind, wave, and swell forecast free fora 2day prediction . It is world wide and easy to use. It gives wave, heights, seconds and directions on an hourly chart. I burn a lot of fuel tugging my rig to Erie. I have not been dissatisfied one time. It will give a longer forecast but itnis not free. Its uses weather bouys on the water. As my other post mentions there is also an App.

Regards,
Kent

[Retired]

I agree with Wakina on the NOAA forecasts - they are very inaccurate. There were several times this past season when I went out, and the winds were coming from a completely different direction, at a much different velocity than forecast. (Sometimes better than forecast, but usually worse.) I think the area forecasts are prepared in the Cleveland office, and it appears as if the forecasters don't even have a window they can look through to see what is really happening. I understand that forecasting weather is far from an exact science, but the real time buoys, and the Weather Channel or Accuweather are better indicators, especially in real time. The only drawback is the lake buoys are pulled for the winter, so those late and early season fisherman can't rely on them, but there are enough shore locations to always get a real time wind reading.

Also agree with Polar Eyes' comment - any forecast outside of a 24 hour window is an estimate, and likely to change, especially with wind and wave heights.

My most most reliable process is to check Accuweather 24 hours in advance, and the real time lake and shore buoys before I leave the house that morning. I still occasionally get surprised, but it happens much less often than when I depend on the NOAA forecasts alone.

[West Basin]

A little info on the wind / weather sites. Most if not all use a variety of data sources, weather stations. NOAA uses their own and other gov't sources. Others, such as weather underground (wunderground) use a lot of their own (private individuals backyard stations) plus other sources (gov't, private, etc.). They all then run this data through a computer weather algorithm (weather modeling program). So two things are most important. First, how many accurate data points (weather stations) you use and second how good your prediction model is. Some are much better than others. The modeling is updated as improvements are learned. So do your own experiment and compare several of them for a few months and pick the one that's most accurate. Generally speaking a site that specializes in wind prediction is going to be better because they use as many wind data sites as they can from a variety of available sources, and they are always looking for the best wind prediction model. They can update/improve their service a lot quicker than NOAA can (NOAA is gov't, need I say more?).