Weather

[Gardeneer]

WRONG FORECAST.
AccuWeather forecast says that today wind will be blowing from NW .
WRONG. I have a wind indicator that I happened to be watching it for hours (from the window)
The wind is coming from SW. Should I trust their forecast for tonight . Interestingly The Weather Channel says the same thing. I bet they all get their info from the same source.
And their hourly temperature at this time (5:45) is 54F. Wrong again. I just checked it is 61F.

Well at least they are wrong in my flavor.

[dmforcier]

I use Weather Underground. They display their network of local weather stations. Maybe you can find one that better describes what you're seeing.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

I use Weather Underground. They display their network of local weather stations. Maybe you can find one that better describes what you're seeing.

I have noticed that they are often wrong forecasting highs and lows. eg, one night their forecast called for low of 37F. I left my houseplant tomato outside. It got partially toasted even it was next to east wall next to the Azalea. My own mini weather station recorded a low of 28 that night.
I don't care much about the highs but at this critical time the lows are what I care for and watch. So when they say low will be 39 I will cover my plants . knowing that even 33F will not kill a tomato plant.

[AlittleSalt]

I saw Carolyn was here about 30 minutes or so ago. I am worried for her and all the snow NY is getting.

[bower]

Stay safe Carolyn! I hope you don't run out of smokes.
I know when we have storms here I try to get everything together that I might need and have my light especially right to hand. There's nothing worse than having to search for things in the dark.

Storm kit for you since you can't go far, that means flashlight, extra blankets, warm hat, food!! including chocolate of course and your smokes and nicorettes within reach. Cell phone (fully charged) and a battery operated radio are also key... I have the power company phone number in my cell now so I can notify of an outage if they don't have it listed already.
Gotta say when you're without power for hours or days, my little radio is a big blessing. Besides entertainment there's also news about the general condition of er, and when power is expected to be restored.
It worries me to think of you trying to get around in a blackout!

[slugworth]

When we lose power here the old style phones lines are still intact.
I used a laptop with dialup modem last night to get here, for old times sake.

[Father'sDaughter]

We just picked up a couple of GE LED camping lanterns mainly for use out on the patio, but they will be perfect for light during a power outage. They have three light levels and will reportedly run for 240 hours on low on a set of D cell batteries. Bye-bye candles! I think they were about $20-25 at Costco.

Stay safe everyone!

[dmforcier]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

I have noticed that they [Weather Underground] are often wrong forecasting highs and lows. eg, one night their forecast called for low of 37F. I left my houseplant tomato outside. It got partially toasted even it was next to east wall next to the Azalea. My own mini weather station recorded a low of 28 that night.

Depends on how you set it up. For instance, if I tell it I'm in Dallas, then it will use the official weather station at DFW Airport, which is an hour away on open plain. If instead I enter my zip code (urban zip codes tend to be small) or manually select the most representative nearby weather station (Lake Highlands, IIRC) then the forecast is usually within a degree. Last night it called out 39°. I believe it was 41° on my 3rd floor deck, where it is always a bit warmer.

Pull up the WunderMap and tell it to display Weather Stations, then choose the one that tracks yours and set it on the main forecast page. It should do better.

[AlittleSalt]

I live on a road that is the line between three zip codes, and a forth zip code is a few miles away. The road is barely over 1 mile long.

[Gardeneer]

I live in a small town, not like Dallas FW . There can't be more than one weather station close to me. The next bigger town is 20 miles away. Probably they don't even have a weather station here in town and there are just fitting their data in. Plus, over here it is flat, no hills, no lakes to create a micro climate. Maybe their weather station is in the next small town over, about 10 miles east of us.
Anyway, I don't care for dead accuracy. Just at this juncture I find their forecast not reliable.

[slugworth]

I live in a small town and weather underground has a personal weather station on the same street when I am visiting relatives.Willyweather has one about 500 feet away from home with a tide clock.

[Nattybo!]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

I saw Carolyn was here about 30 minutes or so ago. I am worried for her and all the snow NY is getting.

Me too . I came here just to make sure she is okay. I just looked at a doplar map (at weatherunderground) of New York and there is so much snow still falling.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

I live in a small town, not like Dallas FW . There can't be more than one weather station close to me. The next bigger town is 20 miles away. Probably they don't even have a weather station here in town and there are just fitting their data in. Plus, over here it is flat, no hills, no lakes to create a micro climate. Maybe their weather station is in the next small town over, about 10 miles east of us.
Anyway, I don't care for dead accuracy. Just at this juncture I find their forecast not reliable.

Just go to Weather Underground and check. I bet they will have a station near you. I used my zip code and then after setting it up changed to the station nearest my house. The one I use is less than a half mile from my house and is usually accurate within a degree or two. I live on top of a hill that gets a bit colder when the temps drop fast like this and I will usually get between 1 and 3 degrees cooler during a real cold snap than they say; but compared to the other weather forecasters they are nearly dead on.

I used to lose things watching our local weather stations on TV and learned the hard way not to trust them. Now I always check WU. They are forecasting 33 tonight so I could get anywhere from 30 to 36 but that is close enough for my needs. Tomorrow they are forecasting 29 and that is dangerous for my lettuce and cabbage because if it gets 3 below that I will have some serious freezing with the north winds that are blowing here.

I'm still waiting on my tulip poplar to open up.

Bill

[Father'sDaughter]

Another vote for Weather Underground! I have two stations in my neighborhood, one at the local MIT observatory, and always go with their predictions (and remember -- even they are just making "predictions").

The only use I have for TV weather is to see what happened in the past--how much snow did we get, how much wind damage occurred, etc.

All through our "blizzard" yesterday I never once turned on the TV, but I did keep track of the storm with my WU app on my phone. I dumped all the other weather apps a long time ago.

[Nattybo!]

Weatherunderground is the best. I don't always like what they forecast but it is always right.

A few weeks ago (I think it was a Sunday?) I was scanning the sky, worried about tornadoes, went inside and checked weather underground and up popped a pink triangle 20 miles south west of us. I was herding kids and cats to the basement, grabbing a flashlight, and was down the stairs behind the kids (I had to carry the dumb cat) when hubby's phone's weather alarm went off about 2 minutes after we started scrambling.

We were lucky. That tornado was only an f1 but it was on the ground for a crazy long distance...I think it was 8 or 10 miles? And it broke up 3 miles before or house. We lost power for a few hours. Our yard was white with marble sized hail.