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Best weather app or website?


larrysanders

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7 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

I use the BBC, the Met Office, Metcheck and Accuweather.

 

It's all driving me nuts. It's not so much that I haven't been able to figure which one is the least inaccurate, more that they all disagree so much. Today, for example, one tells I should stay where I'm moored this morning and set off after lunch when the chance of rain is much lower. Another tells me the complete opposite!

 

Perhaps I should pick the one that looks prettiest (quite like the Met Office app and website) and dump all the others.

 

Or just look up at the sky and guess the future.

 

I did use one a while back that provided a summary of (the main?) forecasters and an average of them all but I can't remember what it was called. Limited detail though IIRC, though detail is less than helpful without accuracy. I'll try Googling and see if I can find it.

 

You need one of these.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_rock

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11 minutes ago, Flyboy said:

You need one of these.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_rock

Hmmm, I'm still not sure.

 

It looks as though it's probably just as good as the various forecasts that I'm currently misled by but the big advantage they have is that they cost me nothing, apart from my sanity, whereas I would need to shell out a bit of my meagre pension to obtain a weather rock.

 

Thanks for the suggestion though.

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35 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

 

 

Or just look up at the sky and guess the future.

 

 

 

That's not a bad plan. 

Weather forecasts are much better than they used to be. Also let's not forget the weather can change quickly as it is at the momemt.  This makes accurate forecasting for the an individual location impossible.

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1 minute ago, MartynG said:

That's not a bad plan. 

 

 

I've just put that plan into action. I was looking at the Met Office website just now and it said 0% chance of rain for the current hour. I then looked out the window to see what could be the cause of a noise that sounded quite like rain. Turned out it was rain!

 

So far... Lily Rose's plan 1, Met Office 0

 

 

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Surprised to see a few in favour of metcheck here - it's the one I have been using for a long time because I like the layout of the information - but I find it very inaccurate, in particular it is rather pessimistic and on plenty of occasions I have not done things that I could have, due to poor forecasts that didn't materialise. Was reading this thread with hope of a better alternative but looks like it's all much of a muchness.

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20 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

 

I've just put that plan into action. I was looking at the Met Office website just now and it said 0% chance of rain for the current hour. I then looked out the window to see what could be the cause of a noise that sounded quite like rain. Turned out it was rain!

 

So far... Lily Rose's plan 1, Met Office 0

 

 

https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar

 

weather radar is the best way to see if its going to rain in the next few hours. Far better than any forecasts.

Did you say you were on the way to Banbury? If so, dry for an hour but the odd short shower for the rest of the day. Umbrella time!

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1 minute ago, Dr Bob said:

https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar

 

weather radar is the best way to see if its going to rain in the next few hours. Far better than any forecasts.

Did you say you were on the way to Banbury? If so, dry for an hour but the odd short shower for the rest of the day. Umbrella time!

Yes, we're currently near Clattercote Wharf intending to go to Cropredy later today then on to Banbury tomorrow.

 

My plan, after consulting too many weather forecasts, was to set off straight after lunch to hopefully do the 3 locks in dry weather. Currently the sun is shining! And the Met Office now suggest 60% chance of rain, quite possibly thundery, around 2pm. 

 

I think I'll put the Lily Rose plan into action again as soon as we've had lunch and probably supplement this with a look at that radar thingy. The result will probably be that we'll set off in sunshine early afternoon, get a good drenching at the locks and then dry out in the sunshine that arrives just after we moor up.

 

Quite like yesterday really.

 

Saturday looks like a good day to stay put, Storm Hannah is heading our way apparently. It will probably be earlier or later than the forecasters predict, thus ruining two days' plans rather than one.

 

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55 minutes ago, MartynG said:

That's not a bad plan. 

Weather forecasts are much better than they used to be. Also let's not forget the weather can change quickly as it is at the momemt.  This makes accurate forecasting for the an individual location impossible.

Yep - when I try to explain the difficulty with forecasting (showers) I say its a bit like chickenpox (in the days we were allowed, or encouraged to get it - anybody else get sent to play with infected friends or was that just my sadistic parents?), you know the spots are going to start on the truck but exactly where is impossible to say.  Its the same with showers, you know which area they will be in but knowing exactly where is impossible

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1 hour ago, Johny London said:

Surprised to see a few in favour of metcheck here - it's the one I have been using for a long time because I like the layout of the information - but I find it very inaccurate, in particular it is rather pessimistic and on plenty of occasions I have not done things that I could have, due to poor forecasts that didn't materialise. Was reading this thread with hope of a better alternative but looks like it's all much of a muchness.

I'm thinking of ditching Metcheck for exactly these reasons.

 

I started using it after its accuracy was commended on these forums and I liked having estimated rainfall amounts displayed.

 

However, it does appear to be more pessimistic than other forecasts, often incorrectly so, and I too have changed my plans because of it only for the gloomy prediction not to materialise.

 

The rain radar DrBob mentioned above looks good. It doesn't appear to forecast but if you switch the animation on you can track the rain hotspots for the last two hours in 5 (?) minute intervals and get an idea of whether you are likely to be in one of the hotspots currently heading roughly towards your area.

 

I may bookmark that and the Met Office and dump everything else.

 

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8 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

if you switch the animation on you can track the rain hotspots for the last two hours

I can’t seem to work out how to do that on a phone. Did you select it on a pc?

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1 hour ago, WotEver said:

I can’t seem to work out how to do that on a phone. Did you select it on a pc?

I can see the anim on and anim off button on  my android.

Scroll up from the map and you should see it.

As of 13.40, it looks clear for Sean for a few hours - missing the showers.

The showers are moving fast today so not as easy to see if you are going to get wet. Usually they move half the speed so you can easily predict it dry for say 3 hours before a weather front hits and then you can see say 4hrs of solid rain.

1 hour ago, Lily Rose said:

 

The rain radar DrBob mentioned above looks good. It doesn't appear to forecast but if you switch the animation on you can track the rain hotspots for the last two hours in 5 (?) minute intervals and get an idea of whether you are likely to be in one of the hotspots currently heading roughly towards your area.

 

I may bookmark that and the Met Office and dump everything else.

 

Yes, that is the way to use it. The animation is every 10 mins and goes back a couple of hours so first look at the chart to see where the rain is now, run the animation to see which direction the rain is coming and how fast, go back to the current map and estimate what is coming your way and when.

In the winter you can set it to 'weather type' and it tells you if it is snow, sleet or rain.

 

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4 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

I use the BBC, the Met Office, Metcheck and Accuweather.

 

It's all driving me nuts. It's not so much that I haven't been able to figure which one is the least inaccurate, more that they all disagree so much. Today, for example, one tells I should stay where I'm moored this morning and set off after lunch when the chance of rain is much lower. Another tells me the complete opposite!

 

Perhaps I should pick the one that looks prettiest (quite like the Met Office app and website) and dump all the others.

 

Or just look up at the sky and guess the future.

 

I did use one a while back that provided a summary of (the main?) forecasters and an average of them all but I can't remember what it was called. Limited detail though IIRC, though detail is less than helpful without accuracy. I'll try Googling and see if I can find it.

 

today and yesterday the BBC app was spot on with it's timings with predicted rain in my area.   the met office app was way off.  

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1 hour ago, larrysanders said:

today and yesterday the BBC app was spot on with it's timings with predicted rain in my area.   the met office app was way off.  

Great, just when I thought I'd made a decision someone comes along to make me doubt it.

 

Thanks to DrBob for the link to the radar, I checked it after we had lunch and it showed nothing heading North between the South coast and Banbury so off we went. Only needed 1.2 hours and it stayed dry and mostly sunny. We're now sitting in lovely sunshine at Cropredy. I'm happy, the solar panels are happy, the duck's happy (no, not that one! I'm not a kidnapper).

 

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As I sit here typing this we have really heavy hail. I guess it’ll end in about 2 minutes though...

2 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

I can see the anim on and anim off button on  my android.

Found it! Thanks :)

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This morning is a good example of how the rain radar works. XCweather is showing a few showers for Banbury this morning. At 8.30, rain radar is showing it dry and likely to remain so till lunch but then a weather front approaching from the west just up to Cardiff - and it is. We are there.

I would guess no rain to go boating this morning but prepare for a wet afternoon for a couple of hours of persistent light rain. The general weather position means the front will weaken so by the time the rain reaches the east it will be patchy.

Bottom line, go boating this morning and go to the pub this afternoon. 

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2 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

This morning is a good example of how the rain radar works. XCweather is showing a few showers for Banbury this morning. At 8.30, rain radar is showing it dry and likely to remain so till lunch but then a weather front approaching from the west just up to Cardiff - and it is. We are there.

I would guess no rain to go boating this morning but prepare for a wet afternoon for a couple of hours of persistent light rain. The general weather position means the front will weaken so by the time the rain reaches the east it will be patchy.

Bottom line, go boating this morning and go to the pub this afternoon. 

We've taken your advice.

 

We decided to sit out Storm Hannah in Cropredy rather than Banbury so this morning we boated (briefly) in the sunshine to move from the 24h mooring above the lock to the single 48h mooring next to Athy's boat.

 

This afternoon well go to the nearby pub.

 

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Look - at the end of the day ALL these services use the same models and ALL the forecasts on these apps are automatically generated.  The differences come in the algorithms used to interpret the point values (usually derived from an ensemble of runs).  Most tend to focus on precipitation (or lack of) and wind as that is primarily what their target customer is interested in.  Variations in accuracy will happen all time between these providers especially those who use the GFS type model with 25km resolution.  To go back to the OP's question there probably isn't one single 'best' app.  Find 2 or 3 that you find you like and when you want to plan something look at the forecasts from all of them.  If they all agree then pretty good chance that will happen.  If they wildly disagree that's as sign that you need to take any of the forecasts with a good pinch of salt.

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2 minutes ago, JJPHG said:

 Find 2 or 3 that you find you like and when you want to plan something look at the forecasts from all of them.  If they all agree then pretty good chance that will happen.  If they wildly disagree that's as sign that you need to take any of the forecasts with a good pinch of salt.

 

That last sentence seems to sum it up. That seems to be the situation, in the UK at least, for much of the time, at least when the weather is very changeable. Like now. Or perhaps most of the time.

 

I've pretty much settled on netweather's weather radar (thanks again DrBob) to assess the likelihood of rain, and how heavy and long-lasting it will be, over the next 2 or hours or so as that helps me decide whether or not to pull up the pins.

 

I just need to decide on which service to use for assessing the next couple of days. I've decided to ditch Metcheck for being overly-pessimistic and just need to decide (probably) between the BBC and the Met Office.

 

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