How About a Weather Forum ?

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Thorin

Is anyone in the rank and file of the CF membership a meteorologist?

I have been trained in meteo and wrote my thesis on it (at my maritime college level, not the Uni). But nothing beats a NOAA guy with a strong weather server...

b.

[Thorin]

So... Are you a NOAA guy? And are you comfortable being the resident weather expert? I guess more importantly can you dumb it down and point out the important details/practical application of weather events and anomalies for us non experts?

[Dreaming Yachtsman]

Another vote here for developing a weather forum. We could share our favorite sources of weather information: mine is stormsurfing.com, which I was shown by the Port Captain in Santa Rosalia, Mexico.

[flysci]

What a great idea! I learn all kinds of things on this site from reading various threads. Largely from the non-experts who share their personal experiences.

Let's go for it!

Margo

[Reality Check]

Think a blog type forum would be nice but a separate possibly more formal weather education forum thread would work well and not be as subject to excessive reports of weather conditions vs weather training resources

[barnakiel]

I think the weather thing, if meant for learning something, could be organized as a series of articles (and they do not have to be ours but they have to be good) followed by discussions. The discussions can be held on the forum, the articles and other material can be linked in.

For those who are truly into learning (rather than discussing same old urban legends on the weather ;-) I can recommend a place like (e.g. only) UCAR site where one can join some basic but very well based courses. Once beyond the basics, they also offer more in-depth material.

barnie

[High Heels]

Took a couple's cruising seminar this w/e with my husband. One of the features of the day was Lee Chesneau giving a talk in regards to weather routing. His website is here Lee Chesneau's Marine Weather

He was a great presenter. Despite having people in the room with incredibly diverse levels of experience with weather routing, he still gave a challenging talk.

He drove home the fact that mariners should be able to read weather analysis charts produced by the NWS.

Out of everything I took away from that seminar, it was his lecture that gave me a new found excitement in regards to everything I have to learn. As well, I realize that a lot of the anxiety I feel in regards to weather is the fact that despite forecasts it seems the weather can change in an instant. I have this new sense of having some control of the uncontrollable by being able to read accurately, hopefully in the near future, the weather and sea state analysis charts.

I think to not have a weather forum here on Cruisers Forum is missing a huge opportunity to share what participants understand in regards to all of the different tools we have to read and predict weather. Understanding how to read weather can literally be a life saver out on the water...

Hope there is a new addition of a Weather Forum here soon

[Capt Phil]

Great idea... we used to kick around our various opinions on Sonrisa net arising out of the same weatherfax info we had. it is really interesting to listen to the prediction variations based on the same data. Lots of fun and a few days later we could grade ourselves on who was right! I vote for weather forum...

[High Heels]

Capt Phil that sounds like it was a really good opportunity to learn and test oneself on Sonrisa net.

I bought Lee's book and have started to dig in a bit. The 500 Mb charts are what I am finding so interesting, and new concepts like understanding the mid level atmospheric conditions and how they affect the lower level, surface conditions...it is like multiple light bulbs are coming on finally! ;0)

[Capt Phil]

High Heels, it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. We all got to know where the key sea buoys were, could read millibar charts and suss out the mlac's but the prediction side was where we really learned and were regularly humbled. The fun was when we our forecasts out several days/weeks varied from the professional NOAA forecasters. It really brought home to me the role that ocean temps played in the overall pacific weather cycle... Capt Phil

[capt_douglas]

Lee makes weather understandable. I too, am always looking at getting a better understanding of weather. With the right GRIB files and some intermediate weather understanding, I know I can be better prepared for offshore cruising. Significant portions of the world have less than stellar weather forecasts and being able to interpret what's available has to make me a better sailor. Great idea!

[ReMetau]

"Whether the weather be mild or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not."

A weather forum sounds good to me.

[NDH]

A weather forum gets my vote

[SaucySailoress]

We tried running a weather forecast competition in Kuwait, but the winner was always "today it will be hot and sunny."

It would be nice to learn something about real weather. Here the closest we get to variety is..."Ooh, there's a cloud... wow..."

[Adax]

it is likely going to be dfficult to keep up a weather forum - not enough Brits aboard to keep the threads going

Seriously though ,great idea. Lots of info around that gets lost in the wider world of the forum.