What website do you use to check the weather?

[toryglen-boy]

howdy

Am looking for a website that has good, accurate, weather forecasts. Am hopefull to get some imaging done this weekend for the first time in ages, and if i see another pic of NGC 253 then i think i am gonna hurl

:lol:

So, spec me a good reliable weather site

;)

[Omaroo]

Duncan I use WeatherZone, and subscribe as a "Silver" level member for $5 per month.



Comparison chart between service levels: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/about/whatweoffer.jsp

[Lismore Bloke]

I use Weatherzone too. Stormtracker feature is worth having. The BOM site is also good for storm tracking, particularly the high resolution radar sets at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Yarrawonga.
http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR713.loop.shtml#skip

It picks up severe storm cells with much greater accuracy than standard radar sets. Most weather sites still use BOM data.

[toryglen-boy]

Thanks Chris

So what does your "silver" account say the weather is to be like tonight then?


:P

[Coen]

The BOM site and SkippySky. The latter does a pretty good job of forward predictions of cloud cover using the current best models, for example clear skies early afternoon, great going to do some observing. Note on Skippy clouds due around 4:30pm and due to stay & sure enough they do. Have done similar wet-finger in the air tests of it for a few days out and its pretty good.
http://www.bom.gov.au/
http://www.skippysky.com.au/

[troypiggo]

Wunderground - (check out Brisbane's extended forecast this week!) (http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/94578.html)

I like it because it shows day and night, and heaps of weather stations all around me updated regularly.

[BerrieK]

Morning Duncan.

I look at weatherzone http://www.weatherzone.com.au/

you can put in your postcode and it shows you your (viewing) future :lol:.

It can show you satellite, radar, a national stormstracker and other little 'features'. I've found it to be pretty reliable for my local area.

I know that a lot of pople look at the BOM (bureau of meteorology) site also http://www.bom.gov.au/index.shtml.

Kerrie :)

p.s. none of the weather sites will give you a (virtual) bucket in case you hurl!

[toryglen-boy]

Thanks for that Kerrie

:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

I use a combination of these three websites:

http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/

http://7timer.y234.cn/V3/product.php?language=en&product_id=1&lon=150.85&lat=-33.90&ac=sfc


http://ozforecast.com.au/cgi-bin/weather.cgi?station=Ilford.NSW&radar

Then I wet my finger, stick it in the wind in the backyard and make up my mind if I'm going to setup or not. :)

[troypiggo]

Oh yeah, I forgot 7timer and the Astroforecast (http://astroforecast.org:8080/) one. Brisbane Astroforecast (http://astroforecast.org:8080/cgi-bin/byaddress.cgi?zipinput=brisbane%2C+ australia&submit=Submit+Query).

[Ric]

I generally use Weatherzone or the BOM for long range viewing.

My own weather station is good for giving short range storm and lightning alerts.

Cheers

[DJDD]

I have always wondered where the weather sites, other than BOM, get their forecasts from? some of the forecasts are different to BOM's, and each others.

[Fossil]

A Weather Rock (Source - Wikipedia)
"...a large noticeable rock or similar, often suspended from a tripod...
If rock is wet, it is raining.
If rock is green, it rained a while ago.
If rock is white, it is snowing.
If rock is shaking, there is an earthquake.
If rock is dry, the weather is fair.
If rock is swinging, it's windy.
If rock is warm, the sun is out.
If rock is not visible, it's dark outside.
If rock is under water, there is a flood.
If rock is gone, there is a tornado (Run!!)"

Unfortunately, not much information about cloud cover.

[scopemankit]

Wunderground

[acropolite]

I use elders weather (http://www.eldersweather.com.au/).

[vindictive666]

i use a taskbar app d-weather gets it info from bom

http://www.diegov.com/projects/dweather/

regards john

[pgc hunter]

Bureau of Meterology
Weatherzone
Brisbane storm chasers

[stephenb]

Weatherzone - easier to navigate and better on the eyes than BOM

[Phil Hart]

As others have said, http://skippysky.com.au/Australia/ is now your best bet. I also have silver weatherzone subscription for easy access to hourly satellite images etc.

SkippySky and just about every other non-BOM weather site are using the US GFS weather model as the data is made freely available for anybody to present any way they like.

All those websites that allow you to choose the weather for your address down to the nearest suburb or street are using the same data, which is a bit misleading as the resolution of the model is only half a degree, which is a lot more than a suburb or two!

I wrote several pages about all this:

http://philhart.com/content/cloud-forecasts-astronomers

http://philhart.com/content/cloud-forecasts-victoria-australia

http://philhart.com/content/cloud-forecast-accuracy

SkippySky came out since then and is a much easier way to access the data than accessing GFS data manually as I wrote about..

Phil

[mithrandir]

If Melbourne is always wet+cold+cloudy like everyone from there claims, why do you even care what the local forecast is? :D

[pgc hunter]

Because the 5th and final clear night for the year could be just around the corner? :lol:

[AstralTraveller]

I reminds me of the weather forecast for Kimberly during the wet season. "Max 42C with the chance of thunderstorms." It was true. Every day for months was 42 and the afternoon storms may, or may not, strike you.