Understanding Weather Forecasts?

[jssailem]

James. I've been watching your threads. You appear to have a good grip on the dynamics.

 

[Jerry Clark H356 SV Persi]

Jim: No honorary Hurricane Hunter pin! My reward was staying alive and keeping my crew alive! We were all worried about hail, losing engines and possibly having to ditch in those conditions. At times, the rain sounded like hail beating on the plane. The old RCA radar has an ISO Echo feature where the green turned to black holes in high intensity. At times you saw nothing but a black hole on the screen and just gritted your teeth and pushed on. It was attunationg badly, so we didn't know until we got out the other side, how long we would be in it. The wings were flapping like a bird too. I thanked Mr. Boeing for building a strong airplane.

 

[NotCook]

Excellent points and advice, KG. When I started flying, I was always amazed at the number of pilots that took a 6-hour forecast as gospel, even though they were looking at it when it was 5.5 hours old.

On the other hand, I was getting a preflight weather briefing from FS that was telling me current conditions at my location and along my route were 1000' OVC, when it fact it was severe clear.

What I find down here is forecasts of rain (or not) are rarely accurate (as in, no rain forecast, then it does), but that's just life in the Caribbean.

The kind of forecast I like is seeing the weather map myself and the isogonic lines for winds, pressure, etc., from which I can make my own judgement.

 

[jssailem]

Flying was always about your own judgement. Why should sailing be any different?

 

[Gene Neill]

Birds ruffle their feathers mainly for weather related reasons.

And when they are sick.

Or when they've been insulted.