Hey guys,
When checking the daily weather in the U.S., I use two main sites. The Weather Channel and Weather Underground. I like the detailed forecasts of the Underground site but the graphics could use some help. I like the Weather Channel but it takes so darn long for the home page to load. In the interest of finding a better site, I'm interested in knowing which one you use to check your weather.
Thanks!
P.S. - during hurricane season, I use the NOAA site.
The graphics aren't as pretty, and it isn't as user friendly, but for quality and quantity of data, I use the national weather service website. It takes a while to figure out where to get the information you are looking for, but once you do the NWS is the repository for lots of information. For local rainfall totals and information, I go to the Flood Control District of Maricopa County website. They maintain neighborhood rain gauges and storm water data.
I'm a die-hard Weather Underground "wunderground.com" user. The radar options are really great. My squadron uses the "official" Air Force site because we have to due to regulations, but almost always chooses the data delivered by wunderground over other sites - including the military - when deciding to continue flight operations in our local area. The Weather Channel is a vastly over-rated weather source in my opinion. They seem to be more concerned with entertainment or gloom and doom predictions rather than solid weather reporting. Most guys (pilots I work with) will look at the Weather Channel for an overall and very general idea of what the weather is doing, then go to more specific sources like wunderground or the numerous FAA weather sources or pay-weather sites that most flying businesses subscribe to. I will say a positive thing about The Weather Channel, I like their local city forecast. It loads faster and seems to be pretty accurate, but without the "fluff".
Another source that we use at our squadron is the weather you can get at "baseops.net". It is centered on the military of course, but there's a link to aviation weather sites that prove useful, and if you know your local airport identifier, you get to read exactly the same weather that military and airline pilots use.
The Weather Channel
Weather Underground
WeatherBug
I was using Vista and one of the widgets was putting our local weather on my desktop. My computer crashed last week and I am now using my old XP machine so just yesterday I downloaded the Weather channel desktop. It does seem to work and I don't do anything. it puts the current temp on my taskbar and I can click on it if I want more information.
TrainNut Wrote:- during hurricane season, I use the NOAA site.
I noticed your address as being Arizona. Hurricanes?.....Arizona? Thats kinda like a Nor'easter in California isn't it?
I have the Weather Channel Desktop. It was free.
After you download, you get a small box with the current tempature shown in it. You click on that.......
[
attachment=3950]
And you get this almost instantly! It has forcasts, radar, and even weather related cartoons. I love it!
[
attachment=3949]
The only lag is when you first boot up your computer. After that, Its pretty quick.
Great sites guys. I'm having a lot of fun checking them all out.
eightyeightfan1 Wrote:TrainNut Wrote:- during hurricane season, I use the NOAA site.
I noticed your address as being Arizona. Hurricanes?.....Arizona? Thats kinda like a Nor'easter in California isn't it?
Uhm, yeh, well I guess that needs some explaining. While we do catch the odd remnants of a hurricane leftover from Baja Mexico every once in a while, normally here in Phoenix, we really don't get any weather... just sun, sun, and more sun... and heat. You see, in addition to being obsessed with trains, I'm also quite the weather fanatic. Unfortunately, that leads me to wish I was anyplace else but here to enjoy the extremes of weather. I love tracking the tornadoes (always wanted to be a chaser), following the hurricanes, and any other climatic extreme I can find.
TN, that's why we decided to move from Az to VA. The weather is much more interesting, here. Our weather can come from any direction, and at times it'll come from two or more directions at once. We haven't had any hurricanes affect us all that much, as we normally just get tons of rain, when they do. And wind! Boy is it ever windy, up here in the mountains. Not always, of course, but often enough! i've always wanted to fly into a hurricane, and my wife said she'd like to go, too! When the time is right, she'll try to arrange it, with the Air Force! We can fly anywhere in the world on "space a."
I used to fly with some of those ex-Hurricane Hunters. One guy told me they were flying their grid-pattern through the storms (Hurricane Andrew if I remember right) and set their altimeter on "Standard" which is 29.92 in Hg (inches of Mercury). The guy said the rain was so hard, they couldn't see number 2 or 3 engines (the two closest to the fuselage and easiest to see). They were bouncing around pretty bad in the turbulence, rain pelting the windscreen, wipers pretty much useless, but that old C130 just took it in stride. When they punched into the eye of the storm and broke out into clear skies though, they found themselves flying just above the waves tops. The pressure had dropped so quickly, it affected the "relative" height of the airplane and they nearly flew it right into the ocean without every knowing it. Radar Altimeters aren't accurate bouncing its signal off of water, so they never knew they had been flying lower and lower. With the hard rain, they couldn't see outside well enough. The experience shook 'em up pretty bad and they decided they had enough for the day and flew back to Keesler AFB where they were based.
So please sgtcarl1, think long and hard about flying with those Hurricane Hunters. Oh sure, there might be seats available "Space-A"...but maybe there's a reason for that!
I've never flown into a Hurricane, but I did have one "fly" over me, when I was 11. I went for a swim in the bay, in the eye of that storm, Hurricane Carol. The "trip in", was rough, the eye was fantastic!!, the "trip out" was abject terror.
"The pressure had dropped so quickly, it affected the "relative" height of the airplane and they nearly flew it right into the ocean without every knowing it."
I have "flown into" the Ocean.......in a Hurricane....in a FRAM II Sumner class Destroyer!
The ship was designed for the sea, a C130 might have had a bit of a hard time maintaining "water tight integrity".
HA! The C130 is a beast, it can do a lot, but it doesn't swim well.
What kind of crazy experience that must have been Sumpter250! How'd you swim through that?
Whatever happened to licking yer finger and sticking it up in the air to check the weather and all that? Like the folks did in them good ol' days?
I can tell ya this much, when my arthritis starts acting up in my right shoulder y'all can bet its gunna rain. Don't need none of that fancy satellite who-za-ma-call-its to me when its gunna thunder an' lightin'.
tetters Wrote:Whatever happened to licking yer finger and sticking it up in the air to check the weather and all that? Like the folks did in them good ol' days?
You need the weather stone... you know - when stone is wet = rain; stone is white = snow; stone is gone = tornado, etc.
Andrew
Herc Driver Wrote:HA! The C130 is a beast, it can do a lot, but it doesn't swim well.
What kind of crazy experience that must have been Sumpter250! How'd you swim through that?
Actually not as crazy as it appears to be. Yes there were much larger than normal waves on the bay, but not quite "ocean surf", and I learned to swim in the ocean surf on the south shore of Long island.
The "clear skies" you heard about from the "hunters", are very much that! The eye of a Hurricane is one of the most remarkable places I have ever been to. Clear, quiet, the very light is different because all the particulate pollution is gone from the air. Colors are stronger, shadows are sharper, stars can be seen in bright sunlight. Just one very cool place!
How'd I swim through that?......side stroke, back stroke, breast stroke, etc.
Yes, crazy experience, but one I don't think I'll ever forget, and one that may never have an equal..............and one I'm not sure I want to repeat.......yet.
It is interesting to see the reactions I get when I say I've been swimming in the eye of a category three Hurricane.
