Weather apps for cross country trips

[Diane Larson]

We like to use 3 different sites to get an over all picture. Of course weather can change over night so we always check in the morning.

Wind Alert I find often the most accurate when it comes to winds and gusts, though it is the most pessimistic forecast, so if Weather Channel.com and Weather.gov are both more positive, we usually plan for them, and sometimes Wind Alerts forecast will also get better overnight.

If 2 or all of those three sites look bad for weather, typically we find the conditions do stay bad.

Radar I find best on weather channel app with location accuracy turned on if watching for rain in the area. Very impressively accurate.

Though we have been seeing this summer that some of these storms blow through faster or dissipate before they get to us allowing us to wake up some mornings and wished we had gone to the airport to check first hand rather than deciding not to fly the night before

[Mark Pansing]

I tend to also use Windy, but when things look sketchy I try looking at all the different models to see if they agree. I also use ryancarlton which is a balloon site and in the morning I will check rucsoundings.noaa.gov. All three sites give a pretty wind info. I also will check windy for forcasted precipitation, plus weather undergrounds ground stations.

[Roger Larson]

Diane Larson likes to use the websites that says its bad weather, I like to use the web sites that say its good weather…ha ha. no joke though. I use weather.gov for my first look at weather and use the hourly forecast function there. I pay particular attention to gusting wind predictions. Then I pull up windalert.com and look at all of the surrounding airports ground winds to compare. Another good thing is to call 1800wxbrief. It is a free service and is actually good to use them so they continue to get the funding. I have found most of the people i have talked to are very helpful. Main thing is use the same sites to learn if that site and how accurate it is. The final thing to do is look at the sky and feel the air. Diane’s sites often are way more predicting higher winds and gusts. Sometimes her site is more accurate and sometimes my sites are more accurate. One thing for sure is that weather is always changing. Reading the clouds around Arizona has helped me to also predict what my flight will be. Radar and satellite are other things we look at. Taking off is optional, landing is mandatory :).

[John Glynn]

I like to start with the Weather Channel app for a general picture of what to expect. I then check Aero Weather app to see what conditions are on the ground at surrounding airports. I then like to use ForeFlight to select my airport and then drill down and check “weather” and “winds”. That provides me the wind direction, speed, temperatures at different altitudes. In addition the stability of the air is provided which between the wind and stability at the two lowest altitudes gives me good idea of how the air will be. Some days I like it smooth for my new passengers, and some days I like to play and try to soar my trike. Before I take off I like to use 1-800 WXbrief also to see what they have to say.

[Unknown Member]

Just ran across a website called airportview.net. Not necessarily a site for detail planning but has the basics at a glance. Things like thumbnail to go to radar or satellite view, AWOS frequency and phone number, METAR, so on. The one tab I have not seen on other apps or sites is an alphabetical list of airports by state.