Weather Prediction Frustration! What do you use for long term?

[SmileDoc]

I am looking for long term, 5-10 day forecasts that contain a bit more information than the highs and lows of the day. I have been using Wunderground app and I do like the extensive hourly detail it displays up to 10 days out. And I do know that predicting by the hour, 3-10 days out is almost guaranteed to not be accurate, but it does indicate trends and incoming systems and patterns. My problem with Wunderground is that many times, its same-day or tomorrow's forecasts are not only horribly wrong, but even I know it will not be what they are predicting.

...Anyway, do you love your's?

[texnomad]

The way the weather is here in Rockport a long term prediction with any hope of accuracy is for the next three hours at the most. Wind predictions are especially worthless around here.

[eightweight]

NOAA National Weather Service. You can pinpoint a location on their map, and see a five day, or hourly chart of everything you might want to know.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... =graphical

[MobyYack]

I use magic sea weed and wind finder

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Yaklash]

Good luck. Nine times out of ten, predictions are either off by a day or, worse, completely miss the mark.

The best you can do is plan a week to 10 days ahead and be willing and flexible to change your plan, either which days you go or (more often) where you fish.

[narmour12b]

Windfinder Pro has been pretty reliable lately for me

[SmileDoc]

...and where can I find that magic seaweed????

I fish Rockport 99% of the time, and, oh well...

[Yaklash]

...and where can I find that magic seaweed????

I fish Rockport 99% of the time, and, oh well...

Magic Seaweed is an actual site, not a reference to something that might make one not really care about those "tasty waves."

But one thing to feel better about, from mid-May until late September, long term forecasts become more dependable, because weather patterns become fairly consistent. Very little variation in wind direction, slightly more variation in speed. Other than localized variable winds "in and around thunderstorms," things get fairly monotonous.

But fall thru spring, with fronts arriving weekly, it is very volatile and difficult to get the predictions right. Trust me, this winter/early spring, I had two trips to Baffin (a fairly long drive from Houston), miss by 1 or 2 days - difference between a strong bite probability and lock-jaw - when the forecasts looked good enough to pull the trigger and go 7-9 days earlier.

[TroutSupport.com]

They all use noaa's data and models. Almost all the models have started to break down this year with the weather changes we're having. Several times this year I've planned a trip based on the models only to have a front come in a day or 2 early or late. 3 days out is about as far out as anything has been semi accurate this year.

I still use the NOAA graphical forecast and surface maps. The graphical forecast looks 7 days out.

I use the weekly view and look at the wind speed and direction.
http://graphical.weather.gov/sectors...lement=WindSpd

I also look at the surface forecast and the barometric isobars here (Day 1-6 has barometer)
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/outlook_tab.php

I also use Wind Guru (Capt John Havens turned me onto Wind Guru) it seems to better predict bay wind velocities based on near shore gulf (beach side) parameters.
http://www.windguru.cz/206901

[Piscator]

I have always the weather channel site. Hourly data goes out a couple of days probably because that is about as accurate as you can predict by hour.

For wind I use windalert.com. Has hourly wind and gust hourly predictions for 6 or 7 days. It is Ok. Also gives wave ht and weather. The rain chances are never right so I just use the wind numbers.

One thing I have learned over the years is the weather changes are normally later than forecasted and never earlier.

[karstopo]

It's tough for anyone to predict the weather, too many variables. There are a few different forecasting models that try to run whatever available data there is and predict what will happen next. I guess the first thing to know is about the potential for storms. Don't want to be out exposed in a kayak during a thunderstorm. Looking at a couple of different weather sites can help nail down the potential. Some like Intellicast and weather underground apparently use the same forecasting models. Accuweather seems to use an alternate model. Sometimes the models are very close, sometimes there is uncertainty. There are other weather sites. It might be fun to see how close they are in predicting the same outcome.

Despite massive computer power and data inputs, no one has nailed down the weather going out very far. I like to look at different weather sites and plan trips in advance. I'm lucky to live near to the coast. I check the radar and the NOAA stations in the hours before the trip. That gives me the wind, water levels, tides and potential for storms. If storms seem reasonably possible, I pick a launch that lets me fish near to the launch. I think if I were coming to the coast from hours away, I'd pick up on spots that seem promising in particular winds or water levels. There are launches were the fishing can be good close to the launch. If you are determined to fish in any weather that isn't life threatening, then it can be fun to pick just about any spot that's safe and see what happens. There are days where I've never gotten beyond a 1/4 mile or so from a launch because of threatening weather and had a great time discovering what's there.

But if you do find a site that's anything like 100% on the forecast beyond a couple of days, please share.

[Luber]

Iv'e been using this website lately. I don't know how accurate it is though.

http://www.tides4fishing.com/us/texas