Best weather report?

[thomas]

I'd appreciate it if someone can tell me where to get the best wind report for Clear Lake, and the west bay can be found.  Thank you...

[Charles]

Sailflow seems to be fairly accurate with wind predictions. Accuweather is less accurate for the Clear Lake area, in my opinion. You can also download GRIB files and make your own predictions with the same info that the weathermen use.
Charles

[edthemainsailguy]

hot with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms...winds variable becoming southeast in the afternoon..5-15 except near storms...that'll hold ya until october or so...

[thomas]

Good one, Ed. I was hoping for something a little more accurate though. I looked at an online wind report yesterday morning and it said there was a five mile breeze so I drove all the way to clear lake to go sailing only to find there was no wind at all.  Just thought some of you die-hard sailors would share where to find an accurate wind report if there was such a thing so that us part-timers (for now) would know where to go.

[B_K]

For Forecast:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?Submit=Submit&FcstType=graphical&textField1=29.52880&textField2=-95.02050&site=hgx&WindBox=1&AheadHour=0

For Actual with some history:
http://lighthouse.tamucc.edu/overview/507

I use these quite often and find them reliable.

Brant

[thomas]

wow...thats exactly what I was looking for. amazing how much crap you can wade through on the internet trying to find this and still not get it. thanks for taking a moment to paste the links.   sincerely...

[Burns]

http://pri.hcoem.org/txdot/

This one will tell you real time what the wind is doing on the top of the Kemah bridge

[thomas]

thanks man....appreciate it sincerely.

[Charles]

http://pri.hcoem.org/txdot/

This one will tell you real time what the wind is doing on the top of the Kemah bridge

I haven't been able to see any info from the bridge in quite a while. 

[thomas]

there was data in that area on the map although it didn't say the bridge. guess i'd have had to see if before to know.

[edthemainsailguy]

http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ports/ports_data.shtml?stn=8771013 Eagle Point&data_type=All Meteorological

[BJSailor]

Why is it that folks feel entitled to be spoon fed answers rather than actually doing the work to gain knowledge and apply it?

Here's a solution for you - do what we've done for years around here.  Go outside, look at ths sky, pay attention to what the temperature, wind, clouds, etc. are doing.  Repeat every day (more often if you are awake and sober).
Read a book on weather.  Read a number of books on weather.  Study the past weather data and understand how it works.  Visit with a local meteorologist out of the NWS office in League City and ask his opinion on the weather - go back and talk with him a week/month later.  Talk with local sailors and try and understand what they have to say about the weather.  In other words - take the time and effort to LEARN.  You should quickly learn that the weather is not about what it's like outside now, it's about what's it like outside in 4 hours (or 12 hours, or 3 days...).

You won't learn anything about the weather by looking up the answers for the current conditions.  You will learn about weather by putting in some time and effort to learn the theory and local history / patterns.  It's kind of like sailing - reading a book just won't do it, TOT (time on the tiller) will.

[Burns]

Yeah but BJ, if you live 30 or 40 miles up the road from CL it is nice to know what the conditions might be before you ask your non sailing GF and her super hot friends if they would like to go out for a booze cruise.

[thomas]

why do you even question why someone is asking for help. why not just help, or go the hell on about your business? oh, you're trying to be helpful?  thanks for your offer of a solution but please, don't bother, I found the solution I was seeking, there's a f*****g sensor on top of the damn bridge. ok, so it doesn't work right now so i guess I'll just do without the information I need while i do everything you suggested i do, and drop all the other conflicting priorities I have even though all i f*****g really would like to do is a little dingy sailing after driving an hour and a half to get there. i don't understand someone not willing to help someone out, especially when it is no sweat off their a*s as in this case. maybe your a*s is sweating a lot contemplating all the damn people and their entitlements (I've been worrying about that too), and you really can't spare any more sweat and don't want to risk another drop. you know, I'd pretty much give you or whoever the shirt off my back if you actually asked me for it, and i would feel good that I helped another person. perhaps you and I are different in that sense. I take a particular pleasure in being able to do something for someone to help them along the path they're on after spending lots of years not giving a f*****g rats a*s and taking from people around me. I'm sure you could teach me a lot about weather and sailing and judging by your response to my post, I suspect there a few things I could teach you as well. it's a good thing the majority of the sailors I have met at the GBCA don't come across like your response. the GBCA as a whole would be a lot less of a decent organization otherwise.

[Bee]

Well, Brian, one could start by reading  Stuart Walker's A manual of sail trim, graduate to The Sailor's Wind and then pick up Frank Bethwaite's High Performance Sailing. Then you can move on to  Higher Performance Sailing,and learn all about apparent wind sailing.  At this point you will be perfectly ready to buy your first F18 and go fly a hull.  Larned all dat vector and physic stuf from a bok so you gota be god, right?  Sure, and if you manage to get to the windward mark without any mishaps and know every string to pull and manage all the shifts you just might be able to finish.

On the other hand one just might learn a bit on the water with folk that are at least interested in doing some small amount of teaching before you read all those books.  Every top-notch sailor I know is willing to teach you everything he knows so why shouldn't one take advantage of that help BEFORE he goes out and spends the time reading and re-reading those wonderful books?  Time on the water is much more precious then words in any specific book.  What's most valuable is both.  Time on the water plus the experience of others (whether in a book or not) is the optimum way to go.

Quit the bitching and teach.  Its a noble profession even if many think otherwise.