Wind/weather Map

[JG3]

Here's a wind/weather map that I find really fascinating and useful. Check different altitudes for head/tail winds. Different overlays for cloud, rain, even snow, etc.

 

https://www.windyty.com/?950h,-25.760,129.902,4

 

Particularly useful is the forecast section. Just type a location in the search box and it gives a 5 day forecast. Particularly interesting is the cloud graphic. This is the forecast for Old Station this weekend.....

 

https://www.windyty.com/spot/location/-23.843/151.256/name/Gladstone?950h,-23.842,152.272,9

 

Note the 15-20kt SE on Sunday......

 

JG

 

 

[old man emu]

That illustrates the wind conditions better than the BOM weather radar.

 

OME

 

 

[IBails]

Thanks for this really good info, now filed in my Nav and Weather bookmark.

 

 

[Kununurra]

Great site

 

 

[jetjr]

Pretty nice ipad skin too, heaps of info

 

 

[JG3]

That illustrates the wind conditions better than the BOM weather radar.OME

Yeh, and graphics are a heck of a lot easier than the coded jiberish in those aviation forecasts....

 

 

[pj8768]

Brilliant. One day might overlay with ozrunways or similar?

 

 

[ayavner]

impressive!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Thanks John what a great website for nav and planning

 

 

[pylon500]

Very impressive site, far more detailed than the site I've been using for the last few years;

 

http://wind.willyweather.com.au/nsw/mid-north-coast/taree-airport.html

 

 

[Aldo]

Here's a wind/weather map that I find really fascinating and useful. Check different altitudes for head/tail winds. Different overlays for cloud, rain, even snow, etc.https://www.windyty.com/?950h,-25.760,129.902,4

Particularly useful is the forecast section. Just type a location in the search box and it gives a 5 day forecast. Particularly interesting is the cloud graphic. This is the forecast for Old Station this weekend.....

 

https://www.windyty.com/spot/location/-23.843/151.256/name/Gladstone?950h,-23.842,152.272,9

 

Note the 15-20kt SE on Sunday......

 

JG

JG

 

Excellent, still a forecast but I will be interested to see how accurate accurate it is BOM obviously use all this and more information when they put out the aviation forecasts.

 

Aldo

 

 

[JG3]

Brilliant. One day might overlay with ozrunways or similar?

Good idea!

I've just discovered another feature especially for pilots. In the search box just enter the airfield designations for the route you want to plan. i.e.- Planning for Caboolture to Old Station, enter YCAB YGLA (with a space between them) and you get this graphic and forecast:

 

https://www.windyty.com/?950h,2015-05-23-00,-25.487,152.103,7

 

This link doesn't show the track and the distance, but that comes up if you type in the start and stop airfields.

 

Click the 'Play' sign in the lower left or click on any day to see how the wind is forecast to change over the coming days. It's impressive!

 

JG

 

 

[cavok]

Wow, this site is fantastic! It appears they use the GFS model which is the United States global forecasting model. Would be interested in seeing how well the data verifies against actual observations.

 

 

[UltraFlash]

I've been using this site for over a year, overall it seems more accurate than the BOM forecasts.

 

 

[Bennyboy320]

It's an excellent site, heading off to work in a while for a 2:30am departure from HKG-BUS, just seeing if a circling approach will be required, not this morning according to the wind map, I also use the long term predictions to see if any typhoons are heading our way to see if we need to pack up all our outdoor furniture & plants, in Australia I agree much better & more accurate than the BOM site, all they seem to do is put out severe wx warnings at the hint of a cloud to cover their butts.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I use this site religiously and is the go to first site. I find it to be extremely accurate. Recently I flew up to my farm and used it and I have to say the wind at the levels I picked were almost spot on. The winds change quite a lot between Caboolture and Bundaberg. The forward looking ability is extremely good as well. The clouds function seems to be very accurate as well. I just marvel at how much data must be input to the site and the computing power required to do all of this so accurately and it is updated literally on a 4 hr basis by the look of it

 

Mark

 

 

[cavok]

Great to hear everyone's good experience with this tool. I think in terms of aviation graphical forecasting, BoM has nothing similar to this website yet. I agree with Mark that the computing power required to produce these every 4-6 hours or so would be massive. In saying so, the one graphical forecasting tool I do regularly look at on the BoM website is their MetEye product.

 

http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/meteye/

 

To me, MetEye is NOT a one stop shop for flight planning (there's no levels, just surface conditions). But it paints a decent picture of where and when they're expecting weather like showers, drizzle, TS, fog etc. It seems to be updated twice a day about 5am and 5pm as well.

 

Tony

 

 

[Mc Guyver]

Brilliant site!

 

The heights given I think are AGL?

 

 

[cavok]

Brilliant site!The heights given I think are AGL?

I think the altitude on Windyty's site is given as above mean sea level. If you look over SE Aust, areas near the ranges are coming up with no wind at 2000 feet, which wouldn't be true if it's AGL.

 

 

[Mc Guyver]

I think the altitude on Windyty's site is given as above mean sea level. If you look over SE Aust, areas near the ranges are coming up with no wind at 2000 feet, which wouldn't be true if it's AGL.

Using Somersby which is 840ft it makes me think AGL but not sure.

The surface winds compare with what we have now.

 

I wonder how we could confirm?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

It is sea level...I saw it somewhere....and it would make sense anyway

 

 

[Bennyboy320]

On the bottom right hand side of the web page you can select the altitude ranging from surface all the way up to the flight levels.

 

 

[KRviator]

Another good one for planning is SkyVector, that will give you the wind, radar and IR cloud overlays, rubber-banding of your flight plan, and also give you a printable NavLog and export your plan to Dynon SkyView equipment.

 

 

[av8vfr]

I use windyty but also some others are:

 

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-225.63,-24.46,790

 

and

 

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/sohemi/sohemiloops/shirgmscol.html

 

which has Oz on the LHS.

 

Handy when tracking Qld cyclones as well..

 

 

[facthunter]

Mean Sea Level Synoptic chartis generally used for low level wind derivation/analysis. The closeness of the Isobars will show pressure gradient (wind strength) the Flow is Clockwise around a low in the Southern Hemisphere and the wind direction is from high to Low at 30 degrees to the line of the isobar.

 

I noticed a reference to "main" sea level. Destroys confidence somewhat. Clearly an error.

 

Air mass analysis is another good concept to be familiar with. Eg "Tropic Maritime Air" will have a lot of moisture in it. Nev