Trip Planning - Weather

[ewebbinaro]

I'm just curious what methods others have for planning the weather on more out-of-the-way routes?

Should probably anticipate anything, but I mean "get an actual sense for what is _likley_"

Most weather sites forecast a week or more out, is that sufficient for y'all? Anyone using radar/satellite apps like wunderground to get more crisp? Even for a day trip going a few hundred miles away, I'm just curious how people research and anticipate weather on their trips.

 

[PGlaves]

I have four (4) weather apps plus a radar app on my phone:

Weather (came on iPhone)
Accuweather
The Weather Channel
Wunderground

The canned Weather app on an iPhone shows hourly weather for a location, as well as a week in advance, as do others. The NOAA My Radar app is good. I have a similar array of weather sites bookmarked on my laptop.

Sometimes you have a go - no go choice due to where you need to go. But often I find that I can modify a route choice to avoid bad weather. Say I am going from Texas to Great Falls for example. If I don't lock in route - say with hotel, B&B, or campground reservations - then there can be flexibility to zig or zag. Also on a trip that length I plan to include an extra day so we can duck if we need to.

 

[lee]

I don't trust any forecast past one or two days.
A seven day forecast is likely to be wrong when you get to day seven.

I use the paid version of the NOAA app.
The paid version lets you store multiple locations.
On a trip I might have 10 towns stored at one time.

To see what you might ride through that day a weather radar app is handy.

I also use the Garmin Smart Phone app. This lets me see the radar on my GPS.
Sometimes we change our route to go around storms if the radar looks bad.

 

[WrongWayRound]

My goto apps are MyRadar, Storm, the native iOS Weather App. Usually check each morning before heading out.

 

[bigjohnsd]

I use the Weather Channel and NOAA Radar - it is what it is, if I need to get to a specific destination I just batten down the hatches and go, if I'm just riding I may divert to avoid weather.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I need to go to Salida CO to pick up my finally repaired after a late March Deer Strike Ridgeline and my trailer.
WEAX looks a little sketchy but I need to go so I will.

 

[glenfiddich]

I use NOAA and radar daily, but except for violent weather that can’t be avoided I ride anyway. It’s more a question of what gear I should wear that day

Pete

 

[ramble]

My Radar for daily convective activity, and WU for longer term forecasts. the % precipitation is very accurate. National and seasonal trends also figure in for me. Nice to time a long ride to hole up early or late to shelter. March and April in the south can be dicey, but then storm fronts are moving quicker so short stops sometimes work. If I do a local ride and rain is coming, I usually plan a route towards the rain band, if time allows, then make a turn timed to stay in front of it for most of the day then head to the barn just ahead of the rain/storm.

 

[royce]

Ditto on everything Paul says in post #2 above.

 

[skibum69]

I was watching the weather when I was getting ready to head to Nova Scotia for work. I ended up leaving a day earlier due to bad weather coming in. 900 km's in cold rain was not what I wanted to do.

As for apps I use the crappy one on my iPhone but not much else.