Weather forecast on VHF?

[IH82BL8]

I thought weather forecasting was available on VHF, but I can't find it on any list of channels. (Central Chesapeake Bay, if that matters)

Thanks

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Search NOAA weather frequencies for your area. They are not the marine VHF freq you are used to but most VHF radios will receive them.

 

[Dave602]

What radio do you have? All I have ever owned including my handheld have a button for WX that switches you over to the NOAA channels

 

[woodster]

i just hit the wx button and it has channels 1- 10 weather

 

[navigator97]

They are on WX1 thru WX7 channels on the VHF radios. The specific channel number s different for different locations. You will have to try the different WX channels to see which one(s) cover your area.

 

[Doc_holiday]

I just hit the wx button and do not make any claim to be an authority. I snooped around the NOAA site and came across some info, but if your radio uses actual frequencies, it seems to me you will be at between 162.400 and 162.500 in the Chesapeake bay for the most part.

Again I use a handheld and hit the wx button so I am not speaking from experience.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/ccov.php?State=MD

 

[DRhoads]

Ch 2 works fine in the Herrington Bay area.

 

[rgranger]

Ditto

Hit wx on most VHF and it automatically finds the strongest weather channel.

 

[DAVA390]

My Icom handheld has channels1-10 when you hit weather button. Channel 2 and 6 usually covering central bay area

 

[All U Get]

If you have a Region 4 Chartbook http://www.richardsonscharts.com/product_detail.php?id=4
it lists the WX stations by city. This is good if you want to know the weather at a destination or just to confirm you're getting the info for the spot where you're anchored.

All U Get

 

[thinwater]

Of course, on-line sources like windfinder.com will give a lot more detail.

 

[Bad Obsession]

The NOAA forecasts are notoriously inaccurate. They are quite poor a lot of the time.

The best use is to watch for fronts. Usually the passage of the front denotes stronger wind and wind direction. Usually once the front passes the winds are Northerly (a lot of the times they are North West). The buoy reports are also helpful because they give you wind speed, direction, and wave height.

I use several wind, wave, and weather apps on my iPhone. I will listen to NOAA for the storm warnings as well, but I have found watching the radar on the phone and having a weatherbug app is priceless.

 

[Benny17441]

Well it is NOOA that gathers most of the raw data from where all these weather services base their forecasts on. I believe the focus of their forecast analysis is more intended for commercial shipping than for small pleasure craft. A miss on wind speed for a few knots would be noticed on a small sailboat but would not be noticed on a large ship. There are some services that do work the data at a more detailed level to better serve the pleasure boating community. Where NOOA shines is in the tracking and forecasting hurricanes. It was Rick Santorum that wanted to pass legislation to stop NOOA from providing weather analysis directly to the public. He had proposed for NOOA to continue to gather the data but then have only private companies present the analysis to the public. We would have had to pay twice to get weather forecasts. I think the Pilots Association and BoatUS lobbied to put an end to that onerous scheme the weather companies were trying to perpetrate.