Windy app

[Orestes Munn]

https://www.windy.com/

Run as a nonprofit by some geeks in the Czech Republic and provides “free” access to ECMWF amd NEMS model data, along with wind maps at 15 iso-pressure surfaces and some nifty overlays and and display modes. I donated 10 bucks and will contribute again, if I find it as useful as I think I will.

[kimbottles]

We use that app and really like it!

[Ken Heaton (Salazar)]

I had never checked to see who was providing that but I do use it often, especially when high winds are forecast.

[BeauV]

I don't use windy because as far as I can tell it doesn't display the difference between steady breeze and gusts, which matters a lot around here. Am I missing a way to make it do that?

I do like the big ocean picture as a way of spotting the Low where the NOAA image just has a big "L".

Also, I can never tell which color is which wind speed exactly.

[Orestes Munn]

I don't use windy because as far as I can tell it doesn't display the difference between steady breeze and gusts, which matters a lot around here. Am I missing a way to make it do that?

I do like the big ocean picture as a way of spotting the Low where the NOAA image just has a big "L".

Also, I can never tell which color is which wind speed exactly.

You can display a color coded gust speed map, same as you can for steady wind and, of course, can get the point forecast for any location, which has full model info.

[kimbottles]

Yup, just select “gust” in the options.

[TheOffice]

Use Windy all the time, and it feeds FastSeas.com, a free routing website. As I've said before, fastseas came up with the same route as Expedition for the 2016 A2B.

[BeauV]

Ok, you guys got me to go re-try Windy. It has changed a lot since I last looked. Nice product. I bought the "Pro" version, as it's great to support folks doing this. I took a look at FastSeas.com too, I'll have to read more but looks encouraging.

Thanks!

[BeauV]

In checking out the FastSeas app, I started looking around at where it gets its data. I didn't know I'd run into this. I'm sure glad I wasn't counting on any weather predictions for a mid-winter passage!

The website you are trying to access is not available at this time due to a lapse in appropriation.

NOAA.gov and specific NOAA websites necessary to protect lives and property are operational and will be maintained during this partial closure of the U.S. Government.

See weather.gov for forecasts and critical weather information.

[Orestes Munn]

Ok, you guys got me to go re-try Windy. It has changed a lot since I last looked. Nice product. I bought the "Pro" version, as it's great to support folks doing this. I took a look at FastSeas.com too, I'll have to read more but looks encouraging.

Thanks!

What Pro version and what can it do that the other one doesn't?

[kdh]

I find the PredictWind app and website good. A plain animated view of the GFS and European models.

By the way, the European model seems far superior these days. Apparently the government shutdown is delaying release of a GFS update, but that likely has little to do with it.

[Ken Heaton (Salazar)]

Does anyone use WindFinder? I still use it.

https://aimg.vibbidi-vid.com/vibbidi-im ... E2CEDD.png

[BeauV]

Ok, you guys got me to go re-try Windy. It has changed a lot since I last looked. Nice product. I bought the "Pro" version, as it's great to support folks doing this. I took a look at FastSeas.com too, I'll have to read more but looks encouraging.

Thanks!

What Pro version and what can it do that the other one doesn't?

Eric,

I hadn't realized until your question that there are two Windy applications [url]Windy.com[/url] and [url]Windy.app[/url]. These two seem to be having a battle-of-the-brands with Windy.com who is known on the iThings as: "Windy.com"; while the Windy.app version is known on the iThings as: "WINDY"

I haven't used "Windy.com", which claims to be the original, but the "WINDY" app has a "Pro" version that says things like "No adds" etc....

You can read about the battle from "Windy.com" point of view HERE. Both appear in the Apple App Store. "Windy.com" is "free" but I haven't dug into it enough to figure out why I should care.

BTW - I am trusting Apple to have vetted both parties as decent companies. I did put my credit card into the supposed "Russian" company's request for in-app purchases. We'll see. That credit card has a pretty low limit and every fraud alert known to man assigned to it. I'll post if anything bad happens.

[Orestes Munn]

Ok, you guys got me to go re-try Windy. It has changed a lot since I last looked. Nice product. I bought the "Pro" version, as it's great to support folks doing this. I took a look at FastSeas.com too, I'll have to read more but looks encouraging.

Thanks!

What Pro version and what can it do that the other one doesn't?

Eric,

I hadn't realized until your question that there are two Windy applications [url]Windy.com[/url] and [url]Windy.app[/url]. These two seem to be having a battle-of-the-brands with Windy.com who is known on the iThings as: "Windy.com"; while the Windy.app version is known on the iThings as: "WINDY"

I haven't used "Windy.com", which claims to be the original, but the "WINDY" app has a "Pro" version that says things like "No adds" etc....

You can read about the battle from "Windy.com" point of view HERE. Both appear in the Apple App Store. "Windy.com" is "free" but I haven't dug into it enough to figure out why I should care.

BTW - I am trusting Apple to have vetted both parties as decent companies. I did put my credit card into the supposed "Russian" company's request for in-app purchases. We'll see. That credit card has a pretty low limit and every fraud alert known to man assigned to it. I'll post if anything bad happens.

Ahh, right. I read that earlier, but didn't make the connection.

[Orestes Munn]

I find the PredictWind app and website good. A plain animated view of the GFS and European models.

By the way, the European model seems far superior these days. Apparently the government shutdown is delaying release of a GFS update, but that likely has little to do with it.

I've only seen the free version of PredictWind, which I thought was okay but a little scanty, e.g., no observations and only surface maps. I thought the ECMWF had always been better and higher res than the GFS.

[TheOffice]

In checking out the FastSeas app, I started looking around at where it gets its data. I didn't know I'd run into this. I'm sure glad I wasn't counting on any weather predictions for a mid-winter passage!

The website you are trying to access is not available at this time due to a lapse in appropriation.

NOAA.gov and specific NOAA websites necessary to protect lives and property are operational and will be maintained during this partial closure of the U.S. Government.

See weather.gov for forecasts and critical weather information.

Weird! Just let me run a route!

[kdh]

I find the PredictWind app and website good. A plain animated view of the GFS and European models.

By the way, the European model seems far superior these days. Apparently the government shutdown is delaying release of a GFS update, but that likely has little to do with it.

I've only seen the free version of PredictWind, which I thought was okay but a little scanty, e.g., no observations and only surface maps. I thought the ECMWF had always been better and higher res than the GFS.

I have the $29/yr "Basic" version.

GFS has always been inferior. New GFS seems to still be inferior.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/noaa-is-about-to-make-some-big-changes-to-its-global-weather-model/

[TheOffice]

According to the NOAA guy who did the weather briefing for A2N, the Euro is better but underestimates wind strength by 10%.

None of the forecasts were right for the race, so it didn't matter.

[BeauV]

OK, I’ve made an educated guess at polars for MAYAN and plugged them into FastSeas. I ran a route yesterday that goes from San Francisco to Hawaii. It got MAYAN to Hawaii faster than MERLIN’s old record, meaning about 9.5 days. That’s certainly not right. So..... I revised my made up Polars and got a more reasonable number of 12 days.

Once I was “close” (who knows how close) with the polars, I asked the software to route MAYAN from SF to Tahiti. The proposed route was about the right length and seemed to indicate reasonable responses to the winds in the area, which are pretty predictable. But, the routing software seems to fail on long trips. It displays dotted lines and when you ask the software to play out the route it crashes in different places each time.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in this software.

However, the software did repeatedly do a good job of routing MAYAN up and down the coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz and also between Monterery and Santa Cruz and between Monterey and San Francisco. I know the weather and my boat in theses waters and the software does a reasonable job. Of course, what it’s doing is something that I can do in my head, so it’s not very valuable. Ah well. I’ll contact the company and see if there are some fixes for what’s going on when routing long trips.

[Olaf Hart]

I would assume that the longer the time interval, the more difficulty it is to predict weather and optimal routing, or have I missed something?

I generally only trust weather forecasts for three days round here.

[BeauV]

I would assume that the longer the time interval, the more difficulty it is to predict weather and optimal routing, or have I missed something?

I generally only trust weather forecasts for three days round here.

Oh, I agree. I don't expect a genuinely accurate forecast beyond 3 days. For a 20 day passage (like SF to Tahiti) one would have to work from historical averages. That was part of my reason for running the test. I wanted to try and figure out what the software did with weather well outside of a local forecast. Interestingly, FastSeas appears to just revert to the rhumb line and head straight at the goal. It does display a dotted line, meaning (I think) that it's guessing. Nothing wrong with that, I just need to know it.

BTW, forecasting trade wind direction and speed is highly accurate in the winter when there are far fewer squalls and usually no hurricanes. Summer time is a LOT harder.

[TheOffice]

I would assume that the longer the time interval, the more difficulty it is to predict weather and optimal routing, or have I missed something?

I generally only trust weather forecasts for three days round here.

Oh, I agree. I don't expect a genuinely accurate forecast beyond 3 days. For a 20 day passage (like SF to Tahiti) one would have to work from historical averages. That was part of my reason for running the test. I wanted to try and figure out what the software did with weather well outside of a local forecast. Interestingly, FastSeas appears to just revert to the rhumb line and head straight at the goal. It does display a dotted line, meaning (I think) that it's guessing. Nothing wrong with that, I just need to know it.

BTW, forecasting trade wind direction and speed is highly accurate in the winter when there are far fewer squalls and usually no hurricanes. Summer time is a LOT harder.

The dotted line means it has no data, as it is outside the forecast window.