Reliable wind forecast

[The Incredible Hull]

Hey Raiders,

I went out for a fish today, plan was to flick metal lures off rocks on the south coast.

I checked willy weather, and the wind forecast wasn't that high, was around 10-15 knots.

We arrived at the rocks, and the wind must have been at least 20-30 knots, blowing enough to move me off my feet.

While I was there, I did check sea breeze on my phone, and it seemed more accurate compared to willy weather.

Which sites etc, do you use to look at wind forecasts?

Cheers.

P.S. I went to PKCT - it's closed for a week, not sure why but my mates says he heard something about a mistaken body in the water *shrugs* If you want to head there I suggest to call them first. We then went to Windang, flicked for 20 minutes, picked up 2 tailors and went home.

[rockfisherman]

I use seabreeze.com.au, not only for fishing, but for work because my work is affected by the wind, I can honestly say iv looked at seabreeze pretty much everyday for the past 5 years.

Through my observations I can tell you this: I find seabreeze to be accurate a lot of the time, with a variance of 2-3 hours at times and on the odd occasion the wind blows in a completely different direction to what's indicated on the chart, but on the whole it's good.

Fishingphase

[Dfishin]

Hi mate

I use sea breeze all the time. On the weekend BOM forecast 15 Knots of wind which isnt much but would like it better to go to the shelf. Sea breeze forecast well below 10 Kts all day and dropping all day so went to the shelf in dead calm conditions.

Another time BOM forcast 20- 30 knts of wind for the day so every one stayed home and didnt head to sea. Sea Breeze forcast dead calm up until 1230 and then the 30knts picking up. So i headed out early and around 1200 coastgaurd calls me up to tell me that the southerly had just started to blow 30kts at Gerroa so will hit us at kiama in 20 mins. Enough time to get back in.

This is not uncommon for seabreaze. Sometimes they forcast higher winds in the morning and dropping later arvo. so i plan an afternoon session.

As always you cant completely rely on them and sometimes the wind seems to push a bit harder than expected but i have found sea breeze the most accurate.

Dave

[stickybeak]

Hi mate. Seabreeze and b.o.m marine weather are good

[lostproperty]

I use a combination of the following sites. Once you get the gist of it you'll be able to predict the winds pretty well. The key is to check them every day, weather occurs in patterns usually and there are times when one or two of my sites I use will say something but I get a gut feeling for something else based on what I have seen over the last week and generally I get it right. I surf so I've been looking at these for years, easily applied to fishing

Seabreeze - sometimes gets it a little bit wrong but most of the time OK. Long range outlook is more of an indication than anything about 2-3 days out is pretty accurate. It's updated regularly so check morning/afternoon to see changes

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/nsw.asp

BOM Wind - Only goes as far south as Kurnell but it gives you a really good idea of current wind conditons

http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/observations/sydney.shtml

MHL Tide Chart - Still use this but now I have the tide chart in PDF format on my iPhone (using GoodReader) I tend not to use this unless I need tomorrows tides and too lazy to look through the PDF

http://www.mhl.nsw.gov.au/www/sydp_tide.htmlx

Buoyweather - Used to have an account for this (most surfers will remember the archbishopdesmondtutu@hotmail.com login) but don't have a paid account now so it's only a 2 day forecast. You can get long range data that is the same as this site if you download the Hurley Surf app for iPhone (paid version) and you can select each coastal area in Australia, however not as accurate as Seabreeze

http://www.buoyweather.com/wxnav6.jsp?region=NSW&program=Maps

7 Day Synoptic - 7 day synoptic maps perfect for sussing out the BOM pressure, rain, wind direction ect

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/synoptic/

Swell Data - Perfect if you are planning on heading offshore. Click "Wave Height" it's the chart I prefer to use

http://www.surf-forecast.com/maps/Australia

Sea Temp - MHL Buoy

http://www.mhl.nsw.gov.au/www/wave_temp.htmlx

Sea Surface Temp - More detailed than the above, good if your heading wide offshore

http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/sst.shtml

Bit more than you asked for but I'm sure theres enough there to help you out!

[rumz]

Seabreeze and BOM current conditions just before I go out.