View Full Version : Alternative to MetOffice...
FrenchScotPilot
16th Nov 2009, 06:10
What other sites than MetOffice do you guys use for weather planning ? Free ones first please...
Thanks,
FSP
Spewing Stew
16th Nov 2009, 06:23
Is BBC Weather Online any good ?
FrenchScotPilot
16th Nov 2009, 06:31
BBC gives a general idea, though flawed at times.
But I was thinking more of a site with sky conditions, visibility, weather at departure, en route, destination, cloud tops, icing, turbulence, precipitation, etc... I have some, I just wanted to know what other pilots use...
Thanks,
FSP
Donalk
16th Nov 2009, 06:37
Orbifly Weather is pretty good for checking conditions at airfields along your planned route. I have used it for some long (600 nm) flights and have always found it useful.
Finals19
16th Nov 2009, 07:13
Euro WX is pretty good and provides some diverse weather models including some from USAF.
Its an utterly ridiculous situation that we have to resort to finding other websites anyway!! You may as well just look out the window or take a wild guess nowadays, such are the potential inaccuracies of the met site.
I did actually visit an on site met office at an RAF base the other day, and that was a different story. A proper met advisor, all the computer models you could shake a stick at, and proper / accurate forecasts. Outside of RAF fields, its a guessing game IMHO.
At any rate, the only way to really get a good overall picture of the weather is "top down" - i.e. consult the surface pressure charts first and foremost, then build a picture via TAF/F215's around that.
IO540
16th Nov 2009, 07:26
There is a vast range of weather data which doesn't come from the UK Met Office.
The UK MO supplies (for free) these
- Tafs/Metars (which they are obliged to by ICAO, and these appear on all kinds of websites as a result)
- MSLP charts (5 days ahead)
- some odd UK and near-UK stuff like F214/215/414/415
- some less well known stuff like AIRMETs
They also usefully publish some EUMETSAT stuff like this (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/satpics/latest_IR.html). But their weather radar data has become available only through here (http://www.meteox.com).
If you want an 3D data e.g. atmospheric profiles you have to go to the US run GFS model e.g. this (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/cmet.html). There are many many others.
tinpilot
16th Nov 2009, 11:45
Weather Online expert charts (http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=en)
GFS soundings (http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/)
TAFs & METARS (http://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/england-wales.php?icao=EGKA)
Satpics (http://www.sat24.com/Region.aspx?country=gb&sat=vis&type=loop)
Rainfall radar (http://www.raintoday.co.uk/)
XCWeather (http://www.xcweather.co.uk/)
Covers most things.
FrenchScotPilot
17th Nov 2009, 06:24
Thanks guys. I am trying to get my head round sounding profiles just now, it is quite interesting.
007helicopter
17th Nov 2009, 21:03
The US Army has a pretty good site here for Europe
21st Operational Weather Squadron (http://ows.public.sembach.af.mil/index.cfm)
IO540
17th Nov 2009, 21:54
99% of free weather data on the internet comes from GFS. Lots of websites generate different "windows" onto the data.
The perverse thing is that the UK MO may have a somewhat better model for the UK and nearby areas, but they are required to run as a profit centre so release only the basic stuff; the rest is sold to commercial weather providers. So most UK users (who want detail beyond the BBC TV kind of dumbed down dross) use the American model, funded by the US taxpayer :)