Weather Underground sailing weather
For sailors who can’t get enough marine weather information—and what sailor can—there are a couple new offerings available from a couple old names in the forecasting biz.
Intellicast has released a handy new weather app for the iPhone and iPad that lets users layer a quite useful range of weather information over NOAA navigational charts. Weather data is available for all of the US, large parts of Canada, and the Caribbean, and includes full North American Mosaic Radar for most of those areas.
Forecasts include both short- and long-term outlooks, along with watches and warnings, tides, storm tracking, and buoy updates. Look for iPhone pricing to start at about $10.
For those who prefer to get their fix via a browser, Weather Underground has added a Sailing & Boating weather page on wunderground.com; you’ll find it at www.wunderground.com/sailing-weather/. The company’s network of 16,000 personal weather stations and other sources of data report current observations, which help generate local and coastal weather forecasts; wind waves and swells are reported separately; and scrolling tide charts are also provided. My first try at the search function was a little frustrating; when I typed in a city and state, nothing happened. A company spokesperson explained, though, that typing in just the name of a port brings up a detailed list of station locations. Once I tried that approach, I could zero right in on the weather I was curious about. An added benefit is that the detailed maps include icons with links to Active Captain log entries.
