How To Read The Weather

[jordan.widz]

Hi raiders,

I usually use seabreeze to see what the weather is going to be like and try to pick the best day to head out offshore but on a lot of occasions where it says the weather is going to be good, more often than not it is worse.

I am begining to wonder if there is something else I should be looking for on the weather reports/forcasts that would help me get a better idea of what the weather is going to be like for a certain day. I usually look for the day with the lowest wind speed and wave hight but when I get out there it can be completely different

P.S I know the it is impossible for the forecast to be 100% accurate but I have been out when it says 0.4m swell but when i get out there its more like 2.5m!!!

Thanks in advance,

Prawn Star

[james7]

My advice to you is check BOM, willyweather and seabreeze (taking note of the run out tides) and combine that with your experience in different conditions to get a sense of what a location is capable of producing.

Everything Andy said is great advice.

One other thing I do is to check some of the beach cams after looking at Seabreeze and Willyweather and compare the graphs to the beach conditions at that time. They give a good idea of the swell at least.

Try "Coastalwatch". They have beach cameras all around Australia.

However, don't do what one of my mates did. He rang me up complaining that the cameras were never working whenever he looked. I explained that the cameras didn't show much at NIGHT!

Stay safe - if in doubt ... don't go out!

Cheers

Peter

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Prawn Star,

Conditions on the water are influenced by a lot of factors beside just the size of waves and amount of wind.

If you get wind blowing against the swell direction for example, the waves will be shorter and more choppy. Same with wind against tide. The 'period' of swell is important too... longer period is more comfortable.

Where you fish needs to be considered. The water close in around say North Head or South Head is often really choppy as waves 'bounce back' off the cliffs... it can be like a washing machine even on good days. Shallow areas can get choppier than deeper areas too.

You really need to look at the weather carefully but also get experience with different conditions in the areas you want to fish so you can see how a different forecast effects each of them.

Cheers, Slinky

[Grant 1874]

Hey Mate

Another good thing to try & rember when going offshore is you want to be comming home with the wind. If it says that it is going to be 10-15

knots from the west never go out. I have done this in the past, the futher out u go the more chop there is & then u have to battle it all the way back home.

[jordan.widz]

Thanks heaps guys, some great tips there and its all starting to make sense to me now. I actually went out today and taking into account all your comments the weather report wasn't far off the real thing. Also from expierence are there particular times of the year that the seas are better?

[beupatsunup]

Just my 2 bobs worth, try windguru.com

Find this very accurate for allround weather.

[beupatsunup]

:bump0ee:

Another good site = willyweather.com.au