Weather Updates On the Hour

 

Answering “Is it going to be a ‘good day’?” is becoming much easier with hourly updates available over the internet.
Here are some the links that have recently been made available to us mere commoners.

Satellite, Aviation, and Marine weather examples

Satellite Imagery

Just looking is the fastest most intuitive way to deal with weather forecasting---

Some Canadian sites do have frequent updates and which you use will depend upon your needs

See the earlier weather articles on this site – but here is the one I use at 2 different resolutions depending on the speed of your modem—For speed use this http://www.cmc.ec.gc.ca/cmc/images/satellite/g9wcan_1070_50.jpg

Or the slower http://www.cmc.ec.gc.ca/cmc/images/satellite/g9wcan_1070_100.jpg

Radar Images

While the technology is not in use in the NorthCoast area – the radar images made available by US and more reluctantly by Canadians helps one interpret the color coded IR radiation used in the above sites

This helps one to see where the worst most turbulent weather is.

 

The US site (left) 

and Canadian below. 

The latter is Eastern BC; and "animated" thus slow loading

 

Marine Weathers and automated buoy reports

Even if we are too remote here for radar we can utilize the marine weather

 

On the right are pressure gradients and wind speeds presented graphically using Canadian offshore automated buoys.

These are 3 hours apart. The front is moving Northeast and the wind speeds and directions are shifting in consequence.

The data is presented by IOS from the lower mainland (a DFO research division). A text table with last 48 hours worth of readings for individual sites is available too (if it is working)

 

 

 

The technology is more useful on a US site (if it's working) that gives the same information

Using Windows 98 technology one can link a database file on your own computer to these tables and update them frequently. This allows one to have a desktop view of all at once. Here is my example taken about same time as above (site presently not working)

 

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All the automatics

Another Canadian site is very useful for latest winds etc., from the automated buoys,

This is the only place I saw “Rose Spit” and Holland Rock on the web,

The red triangles give wave heights etc and the US sites are superior as they give last 24 hours in addition to current. (Site no longer working?)

IOS is better too in they attempt to give graphical overview.

 

Aviation Weathers in the lead

For whatever reason the aviation community via the US sites have better, faster and more intuitive sites than the marine. One suspects the users are more technologically sophisticated.

 

Same system as in charts above.

In lower right is QCIs. This is 12 hour significant (to aviators) weather showing the “front” in Hecate Straits and a “quasi-stationary” front lower left.

When this is combined with an hourly  satellite image – things begin to be intuitive.

 

 

If you understand the code--- aviation updates are issued hourly. The Alaskans give BC data with all the stations being shown on one graphic—wind speed visibility ‘ceiling’ and pressure are given. (As are the offshore automatics).

The Canadian site gives textual info for all BC in code. The advantage is that it gives many intermediate weathers (“specials”) along with hourly data.

 

updated--Saturday, September 06, 2003

 

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