Where do you find accurate weather online?

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trektheworld
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Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by trektheworld »

Whenever I set out on a trip I find myself always checking the weather to make sure I don't set out into a complete mess of weather (even though Colorado is so very unpredictable). I was wondering what websites you use to look at for accurate weather forecasts. Right now I want to make a trip to the East side of the Sangres to do some hiking on Tuesday 7/8 - 7/10. I found myself just typing in Westcliffe, CO into Weather Underground and AccuWeather and trying to average out what both were telling me.

Am I doing this all wrong or should I just say "screw the weather" and head out?
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GregMiller
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by GregMiller »

I've actually been pretty happy with chanceofweather.com recently, although I don't know how far out I'd trust the hourly forecasts. It appears to recognize some landmarks (including 14ers), so you should be able to get a decent forecast as you get closer. For more long-term general forecasts I just use weather.gov.
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by Liquid Shadow »

I use both the National Weather Service on this site (14ers.com) as well as mountain-forecast.com
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jasperson
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by jasperson »

I do tend to check multiple as well.

For me, weather.gov is always the first stop, you can enter GPS coords or click on the map. There is a decent NOAA app (at least for Android) that I paid a few bucks for as well.

For shoulder/winter I also use:

Road Conditions (generally not useful all the way up to trailheads) -> COTrip: http://cotrip.org/home.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Snow Forecasts -> OpenSnow: http://opensnow.com/state/CO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Avalanche Conditions -> Colorado Avalanche Information Center: http://avalanche.state.co.us/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Snow Depths -> Colorado SNOTEL: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Col ... orado.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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painless4u2
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by painless4u2 »

If it's summer you're talking about, I don't think it matters. We plan our trips far in advance and go regardless of weather forecasts. Summer weather in the mountains is pretty predictable with afternoon storms, so we just start early and bring rain gear.
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by peter303 »

painless4u2 wrote:If it's summer you're talking about, I don't think it matters. We plan our trips far in advance and go regardless of weather forecasts. Summer weather in the mountains is pretty predictable with afternoon storms, so we just start early and bring rain gear.
Exact opposite for me. After more than a hundred summits, I'll forgo wasting 4+ hours driving if there is more than a 50% chance bad weather. I can go next weekend.
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trektheworld
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by trektheworld »

peter303 wrote:
painless4u2 wrote:If it's summer you're talking about, I don't think it matters. We plan our trips far in advance and go regardless of weather forecasts. Summer weather in the mountains is pretty predictable with afternoon storms, so we just start early and bring rain gear.
Exact opposite for me. After more than a hundred summits, I'll forgo wasting 4+ hours driving if there is more than a 50% chance bad weather. I can go next weekend.
That is what I am looking at I think - I typed in Humboldt peak because I want to do a 3 day trip where I do Commanche/Venerable loop, Music Pass, and finish with a Humboldt Peak climb.

For Tues/Wed/Thurs next week it says nothing but Rain Showers all the way down to the 8000 ft. mark......that outlook seems pretty grim :(
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by Mtnman200 »

painless4u2 wrote:If it's summer you're talking about, I don't think it matters. We plan our trips far in advance and go regardless of weather forecasts. Summer weather in the mountains is pretty predictable with afternoon storms, so we just start early and bring rain gear.
That's my approach as well. It's rare that the weather stops me from a summit, but it all depends on the mountain. For example, I'd turn back a lot faster on Jagged or Dallas than I would on a Class 1 or 2 walkup. However, it's not uncommon that I'll decide to skip a second or third peak due to the weather deteriorating. Regardless, good rain gear always helps.
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by jdorje »

trektheworld wrote:I found myself just typing in Westcliffe, CO into Weather Underground and AccuWeather and trying to average out what both were telling me.
Your mistake is looking at weather for Westcliffe. If your are at weather.gov, or link through the weather link at 14ers.com or 13ers.com, click around on the map to get a forecast for the location and (most important) elevation at which you are hiking.

During monsoon season weather is pretty consistent: a 50% chance of thunderstorms after 11 am. However it does vary some, and this can affect how early in the morning you leave. Look at the hourly chance of precipitation graph. But also, learn how to recognize monsoon thunderstorms building above you so you know if you have time to get that extra peak.
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by desertdog »

mountain-forecast.com is great!
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trektheworld
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by trektheworld »

desertdog wrote:mountain-forecast.com is great!
it is, but if it says "rain showers" for all elevations all day (AM, PM, Night) then it's a pretty miserable outlook.
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Re: Where do you find accurate weather online?

Post by Max Moorman »

desertdog wrote:mountain-forecast.com is great!
Seconded! It has yet to lead me astray. The prediction for Decalibron today was spot on.
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