What weather source do you use?

[mcantar18c]

I use Google (main search, it gives you an hour-by-hour slider for like 5 days), the 1Weather app, and weather.com. None of them are very accurate further than an hour or two ahead of time, but for some reason I still check a day or more out.
Where do you guys get your bullshit weather predictions from?

[HoneyBadger]

Accuweather's minutecast is pretty darn close.

[Hummer]

I use the NOAA weather site. It's where most all other weather sites get their data.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Palisade&state=CO&site=GJT&textField1=39.1074&textField2=-108.358&e=0#.VWf633BOKrV

and,

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=40.131367827000474&lon=-105.49777780299968&site=all&smap=1#.VWf8MHBOKrV

[Big E3]

On my phone, Accuweather for forecast. Radar Now for storm tracking.

[Ah Pook]

Wunderground. It's the only one that is truly local.

[Persocon]

darksky app, it gives you hour by hour, 7 day hour by hour, local radar. I got it when it was free, it's now $4

[Irving]

Whatever app that came installed on my phone, when I'm on my phone. Otherwise, for work I usually use Wunderground.

[Big John]

Wunderground. It's the only one that is truly local.


I usually use Wunderground.
Me three!

[Bailey Guns]

My window...

[Skip]

Whatever app that came installed on my phone, when I'm on my phone. Otherwise, for work I usually use Wunderground.

This.

Get more than three hours our and they're all guessing anyway...

[roberth]

This.

Get more than three hours our and they're all guessing anyway...

Yup

[Aloha_Shooter]

Weather Underground. It was the only source that gave me accurate weather forecasts when I was in Korea and I know meteorologists that swear by it. WU uses the very latest meteorological models.

[Hoser]

I have a weather rock in the front yard.

[Sawin]

Intellicast HD.

[Great-Kazoo]

I have a weather rock in the front yard.

Ours is on the back patio.
If it gets real suspicious looking , on goes the SW radio. Listening to storm chasers gets us in the moment reports.

[davsel]

+1 for Weather Underground

[buffalobo]

Ours is on the back patio.
If it gets real suspicious looking , on goes the SW radio. Listening to storm chasers gets us in the moment reports.
What frequencies? Have used the scanner in the past to monitor storm chasers but had no luck finding them last year.

[Dave_L]

On my phone, Accuweather for forecast. Radar Now for storm tracking.

Ditto.

[thvigil11]

NWS puts on some great classes and has the Skywarn Weather Spotter program. Worth looking into for the folks that are interested. The basic class is about 2 hours and is full of great info. I know the guys down here in our region real well, we host their class at every opportunity. My county sits in one of their blind spots, radars are in ABQ, Clovis and Pueblo. By the time they get over my area, mountains have blocked any returns under about 20,000 ft. So low level storms don't show up to them. Just FYI.


http://www.nws.noaa.gov/training/wxspot.php
http://www.weather.gov/bou/

[gnihcraes]

my pain. worse pain, something is coming in or going out. :)

[TheGrey]

I sneer at what the weather liars on the news say is coming; depending on the station you choose, there's normally about a 10-15 degree spread. Don't get me started on the precipitation amounts!

I, too, use my arthritis to confirm incoming storms- but I also use my eyes and nose. ;) For the more specific stuff, I'll go straight to the NOAA site, and check with the Accuweather site for their radar.

I have a love-hate relationship with the weather. There are clouds at this altitude that I'm still trying to get used to seeing, compared to what was in Minnesota.

[J]

I use aviation weather even when I'm not flying. It's so much more specific than the digested mainstream sources. You can learn to read aviation weather too with a bit of work.

[mcantar18c]

Back in NC I used to use the Pope AFB website, as that was the one that they'd use to make the weather decision for our jumps and was pretty accurate. Haven't find anything like it here.

I checked the websites linked in earlier posts to decide whether or not to take my bike to work... they all said rain in the afternoon, so I took the truck. Now I'm annoyed, it's been bright and sunny all day.

[68Charger]

I use aviation weather even when I'm not flying. It's so much more specific than the digested mainstream sources. You can learn to read aviation weather too with a bit of work.

Aviation weather was the only way in Alaska... they even had an aviation weather on PBS in Anchorage... it was the "Hippy Dippy weather Man with all your Hippy, Dippy weather, Man" (his hair was like to the middle of his back)

I agree they're all equally guessing here... I thought Alaska had unpredictable weather until I moved here.

[Honey Badger282.8]

I use aviation weather even when I'm not flying. It's so much more specific than the digested mainstream sources. You can learn to read aviation weather too with a bit of work.

Heh, I do this too. I like reading METARs and the app I use also shows PIREPs.

AirWX and the wunderground app.

[SideShow Bob]

A Native American Shaman's weather rock.

[Bailey Guns]

I use aviation weather even when I'm not flying. It's so much more specific than the digested mainstream sources. You can learn to read aviation weather too with a bit of work.

I was an AF weather forecaster for 6 years. There was never any of this "partly cloudy, partly sunny, chance of rain" BS. It there were gonna be clouds you had to forecast how many layers at what levels, when precip would start/stop, turbulence with levels, thunderstorms, shear... And there was hell to pay for a busted forecast. It used to really piss me off listening to TV weather guys knowing how much they were making for giving a half-assed forecast that they were never accountable for.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

I checked the websites linked in earlier posts to decide whether or not to take my bike to work... they all said rain in the afternoon, so I took the truck. Now I'm annoyed, it's been bright and sunny all day.

FWIW, I was in Golden, Downtown Denver, back to Golden, Aurora, and back to Golden today and I saw bits of rain sprinkled about, but mostly on the West side.

Edit: I don't have a good answer to the question. Interested myself.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

I was an AF weather forecaster for 6 years. There was never any of this "partly cloudy, partly sunny, chance of rain" BS. It there were gonna be clouds you had to forecast how many layers at what levels, when precip would start/stop, turbulence with levels, thunderstorms, shear... And there was hell to pay for a busted forecast. It used to really piss me off listening to TV weather guys knowing how much they were making for giving a half-assed forecast that they were never accountable for.

This is [sincerely] interesting. I've long thought these guys do a horrible job and there is absolutely no consequences. In fact, there isn't even a review of if they were correct or not on the air / in print.

[Aloha_Shooter]

As I recall, the weather forecasts in the Springs were for rain around 1700 ... sure enough drops started about 1639.

I used Weather Underground because they were the only accurate source I could get for my location in Korea but an AF meteorologist also recommended WU when I got back stateside.

[sellersm]

I use a Windows app: look out the front window, then out the back window! My knees, fingers, elbows & shoulders usually tell me all I need to know... The skylights in the roof help some too!!

[Daniel_187]

One of these guys. The weather guys make six figures and still mess it up 80% of the time

[RblDiver]

This is [sincerely] interesting. I've long thought these guys do a horrible job and there is absolutely no consequences. In fact, there isn't even a review of if they were correct or not on the air / in print.

I remember an old story I think I read in Reader's Digest. A parent was taking their high school kid to a career expo to learn about different career paths. He didn't show any particular interest in any until they came to the local weatherman. The kid goes up and asks why he'd want to be a weatherman. The reply: "What other job can you be wrong 50% of the time and still keep your job?"

[OtterbatHellcat]

I took the Skywarn classes back in '95. *almost* got into the HAM stuff but never did.

I use these sites primarily:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/

http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

I remember an old story I think I read in Reader's Digest. A parent was taking their high school kid to a career expo to learn about different career paths. He didn't show any particular interest in any until they came to the local weatherman. The kid goes up and asks why he'd want to be a weatherman. The reply: "What other job can you be wrong 50% of the time and still keep your job?"

Exactly.

And, well, major league baseball player. If you are right more than 3 out of 10 times, you can wind up in the HoF. But yeah, weatherman.
Or, be one in Phoenix: It is hot and sunny.
Or San Diego: It is gorgeous again.

[mcantar18c]

Exactly.

And, well, major league baseball player. If you are right more than 3 out of 10 times, you can wind up in the HoF. But yeah, weatherman.
Or, be one in Phoenix: It is hot and sunny.
Or San Diego: It is gorgeous again.

Or San Francisco: "It's FABULOUSSSTHSSS again!

[rondog]

Patio door.

[BladesNBarrels]

Lauren Whitney, CBS4 Denver.
Her forecast changes each segment during the 6:00 am to 7:00 am "News".
She never mentions that just a few minutes earlier her forecast was different than what she is currently saying.
Of course, TV "News" has evolved into an attempt to entertain versus reporting.

[blah-blah]

[xblaze45]

I find that the weather rock works great!!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05/30/a6fcfeaea768bb92e82e014d6817a6df.jpg

[xblaze45]

Awwww somebody beat me to it. Damn you Daniel lol

[Zman]

Storm App on iPad (Intellicast & Wunderground combined)
Intellicast HD on Android
WSI for work along with aviationweather.gov

Licked index finger and Mk4Mod1 eyeball for final say.

Z

[RMAC757]

Weather is like medicine, they practice it. TV people are hired for there ability to read, not be experts in metrology. The weather Channel being a possible exception. Believe it or not there are some great sources of weather out there. If you can read millibar or pressure charts you can do it on your own. I always laugh when I see someone ( my wife ) pull out a radar app and attempt to determine what's going to happen. As someone who's crossed a few oceans and the continent a more than a few times we have to have a somewhat reliable source of weather or it would be a mess. That being said, things change. Weather is very dynamic.

[Irving]

I never understood why people complain about weather people.

[mcantar18c]

I never understood why people complain about weather people.
Why not?

[Irving]

Because it is literally predicting the future and to expect consistent accuracy is absurd. No one complains about not bring able to predict the stock market.

[Bailey Guns]

Weather forecasting can be very accurate over short periods of time in a lot of places. Obviously, the more data points you have upstream, the better the forecast will be. Mountains always present a challenge.

[RMAC757]

Because it is literally predicting the future and to expect consistent accuracy is absurd. No one complains about not bring able to predict the stock market.

This may be my new quote.

[jmg8550]

WeatherBug. Seems reasonably close on its predictions.