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Best wind forecasting app and/or website

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Northwest Kiteboarding -> Gorge / Portland / Oregon Coast
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h2ojump

Since 24 Oct 2013
10 Posts
Portland, OR
 



PostWed Jul 08, 20 1:19 pm    Best wind forecasting app and/or website Reply with quote

Hey everyone,
I'm looking for a reliable wind forecaster service/website as I've been skunked a few times, which I know can happen, but want to decrease the likelihood of that ever happening again. Is there one that's considered the best?
Thank you!

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Sasquatch

Since 09 Mar 2005
2053 Posts
PNW
Bigfoot



PostWed Jul 08, 20 2:16 pm    Terima rocks the forecast, please donate. . . Reply with quote

It happens to the best of them.

A couple of suggestions to help lower the skunked (Not enough wind) or reversed-skunked (too much wind) count:

-Add more sizes of kites to your quiver
-get some bigger boards that have more buoyancy.
-get a foil
-get longer lines/line extensions

-drink beer and eat beans before you head out kiting; you'll be guaranteed to have "wind" wherever you end up. Razz

I use NOAA and common sense. Not a full-proof method, but pretty close.

I'm speculating here, but are you exclusively a Columbia River kiter?

If so, try this site:

https://thegorgeismygym.com/forecast/

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Singlemalt

Since 21 Jun 2015
460 Posts
White Salmon
Obsessed



PostWed Jul 08, 20 4:58 pm     Reply with quote

Free or subscription?

I kitesurf membership is about $10 a month. Great forecasting and live sensors.

There’s the Sailworks Gorge web cam compilation site, for live images.

Temira’s Gorge is my Gym is good.

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Pull the cork.

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dangler

Since 26 Feb 2006
1742 Posts
WINDY SPOTS
XTreme Poster



PostWed Jul 08, 20 6:10 pm    right jere Reply with quote

click "forecast" upper right. click #1 gorge wind sensors. gives pressure gradients and increasing or decreasing. Tells you whats happening now and near future.

All wind is pressure gradient.

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Kite Repair? AND LABRADORS Call me.(509) six 37-four five 29

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bigjohn

Since 13 Mar 2012
663 Posts

Addicted



PostThu Jul 09, 20 5:51 pm     Reply with quote

Pay for site:
https://wx.ikitesurf.com/
This is a must in my mind. Membership more than pays for itself.
Much of the site is data that is available in other locations for free, but they do a good job of putting it all together in an easy to access manner. Plus they have phone apps that are easy to use. You can customize your preferences (both via website as well as the phone apps) which really streamlines your access to the data you want to see specifically for your sites.

They also have a lot of information that is not available anywhere else, for example, they own a number of wind meters in The Gorge (and elsewhere) that you can only access with membership. They have wind history statistics which is great when you are traveling and want to get a sense of what gear to bring. They have human forecasters, and they provide easy and streamlined access to the WRF forecasts which are difficult to access via other sources.

If you don't want to pay then use
https://igetwind.com/
This site doesn't have access to all the realtime meters, human forcasts, statistics, or WRF forecast but it does have a number of forecast models available. I use GFS for long term planning and I check HRRR right before I hit the water. You can customize your settings to track up to 8 sites. I like that you can order these sites. I order my sites in sequence east to west such that I can quickly see forecast patterns throughout the gorge. Ikitesurf has similar screens using their old interface (http://old.ikitesurf.com/myWeather.iws?home ) but it is not as customizeable as igetwind's is.

My process is as follows:
1) I plan the days I will be kiting using the GFS models. They go out 10 days and provide you with a good sense regarding what days will be windy. This allows me to develop my general kiting schedule. The GFS also provides a pretty good sense of which locations will be windy relative to other sites. So, basically I can plan for which days I will kite, and also where I will likely be going. The GFS does not provide me good enough resolution with regards to what kite size I will be putting up though.

2) The evening before I plan to kite I will review the human forecast (7:00pm) and the WRF model (both from IKITESURF.COM) These are both very good indicators of what will be happening the next day.

3) The next morning I review the updated human forecast again. Also, now HRRR forecasts are available (both ikitesurf and igetwind).

4) Just before I kite I will check the HRRR forecast. This is updated hourly and in my opinion is extremely accurate when looking at a 1 hour old computer generated forecast. If the human forecast, WRF, and HRRR forecasts all match I have high confidence. If they don't match I usually trust the HRRR as it was updated an hour ago.

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