WEATHER WEBSITES
Before a cross-country trip I look at several websites. Then I call the FAA Flight Service Station to get a full briefing and to file my flight plan (you do file don't you?). This page has the websites I look at.The day before the trip I look at these weather maps provided by commercial entities:
Then I go to the these sites on the day of the trip:
For my specific area of flight I look at these satellite maps (the first two can be set in motion, showing how the weather has been moving over the past few hours, thereby allowing a rough prediction on how an area will look several hours from now):
Finally, for flights over water, in coastal areas or internationally, the Navy site shown below is very powerful, providing forecasts of wind, rain, and waves for the next 7 days. When you try to access the site you will probably get a message telling you about a security problem and recommending that you not visit the site. Ignore this and continue on to the site. For seas (e.g., wave heigth) click on the first Oceanography link (WW3) and for all other weather click on the first Meteorology link (WXMAP). Next, click on the map with your area of flight (e.g., Tropical Atlantic). You will then arrive at a page which at first will seem daunting. It isn't. Just pick a Product from the left column (e.g., "Surface Strmlns and Wind speeds" or "Previous 12-hr Precipitation Rate") and on that row click on the bullet that corresponds to the forecast time, which the Navy calls "Tau" and is expressed in hours from the time the analysis was made. Say you want to see if rain is expected for a flight you're making over the North Carolina coast on mid-day Thursday, 5 days from now. On the row for "Previous 12-hr Precipitation Rate" you would click on the bullet with a Tau of 120 (5 days = 120 hours) and when the map appears your first task is to confirm that it covers the time of your flight. Your first Tau is probably wrong, for two reasons. First, the analysis may have been done 12 hours ago, so you need a Tau of 132. Second, what you really need is the forecast for 00Zulu Friday, which is 7 or 8PM Thursday night in the Eastern U.S., and will give you the rain for the daylight hours of Thursday. So you might need a Tau of 144. When you get the proper time period, what you get is a map showing the rain forecast, with color coding used to depict intensity.
Click here to return to the Skymaster US Website.