Praise for zyGrib

[Dockhead]

I can't remember who turned me on to zyGrib a couple of years ago, but whoever it was did me a great favor.

This is the single best weather tool I've ever used -- it's kind of the OpenCPN of weather, with a somewhat nerdy UI, immense power, and ingenious functions.

zyGrib has become an indispensable part of my passage planning process.

One of its many excellent functions is the ability to click on any place on the map, right click, and make a "meteotable" for that spot, which is a mini-wind forecast with all the parameters furnished by the selected GRIB file displayed period by period. Splendid!

zyGrib also has excellent and powerful functions for selecting and downloading GRIB files, and like with OpenCPN you have full control of absolutely any parameters you care to dig into. it's set up to pull GRIB files directly from the servers with minimal overhead, so should be perfect for use with Pactor or satellite. It will also grab Fleetcode weather faxes for you, current situation and +24.

The GRIB viewer itself is excellent, with a sliding bar to get through the calendar.

It's just absolutely excellent work by clever and dedicated people -- my hat is off to them! Highly recommended.

[conachair]

After years wallowing unloved it's back being supported again - https://opengribs.org/en/

I actually prefer Opencpn WX and weatherfax these days, s'pose a lot is what you're used to with software. Having grib overlaid on WFAX is a nice feature - or sat images as well.

[Dockhead]

By the way, what is the normal lag time for getting the GFS GRIB files? I am still waiting for the 12:00Z run on the zyGRIB server, and the "Server Status" reads "loading run 12 -- 94.6% ETA 16:49". It's 16:47Z now and the 12:00 run has been available already for a couple of hours on PassageWeather.

Is there a faster way to get these?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

By the way, what is the normal lag time for getting the GFS GRIB files? I am still waiting for the 12:00Z run on the zyGRIB server, and the "Server Status" reads "loading run 12 -- 94.6% ETA 16:49". It's 16:47Z now and the 12:00 run has been available already for a couple of hours on PassageWeather.

Is there a faster way to get these?

In Grib For Sailors by Simon Keeling, he says about 00.00z model becomes available about 4.00z etc.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by conachair

In Grib For Sailors by Simon Keeling, he says about 00.00z model becomes available about 4.00z etc.

Also, I use node red online to automatically send an email to saildocs then save the grib to dropbox when it gets emailed back, I forced that to run and the file came in at 17.16z which was the 12.00z run. If I remember I'll try giving it a few kicks about 4 hours after each run to see when it comes in to saildocs.

[conachair]

Narrowed it down to somewhere between 4 & 5.15 hours after for saildocs.

[Dockhead]

Very useful; thanks!