Southern Arizona Hang Glider AssociationSince I'm very new to paragliding I'm also very new to the black art of weather prediction. I'm currently using usairnet.com. The Launch Code facility provides ground conditions for Tucson and Ft. Huachuca (among many other places) and its Winds and Temperatures Aloft tool shows data for Tucson (and a few other places).
Morey had mentioned another site to me, and the name quickly escaped the steel sieve that is my brain.
I'd be grateful if you would point me to other useful resources.
Thanks,
--JRW
Weather Resources
Moderators:ioan, John Wolfe, aaroncromer, jlowery
-
John Wolfe
- Posts:996
- Joined:Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:08 pm
- Location:Oro Valley (NW Tucson)
I start here. Read the forecast discussion and get a feel for what's going on.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/forecasts/AZZ03 ... ity=Tucson
You can also use the 'prototype digital forecast' and click on any point on the map to get predicted surface winds. Kinda' handy and will give you a piece of the puzzle.
http://ifps.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/dwf?siteID=TWC
For long range (more than 24 hrs) winds aloft and direction, I go here:
http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/winds/
Then, for the really good stuff I go here to get the Skew-T plots
http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/
But this site isn't intuitively obvious. for Box Canyon, I type in "TUS" in the location box. for Miller, type in "FHU". Tucson is -7hrs GMT, so for the 11am conditions, look at 1800hrs (and so on). After it loads the java file and you see the plot, and select your time of interest- it's often helpful to click on the 'get text' button to easily see a wind direction vs altitude plot. The models are updated daily from the morning soundings which usually isn't up until after 7am. Sometimes 7:30am. So- it's the best source of data for 'today'.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/forecasts/AZZ03 ... ity=Tucson
You can also use the 'prototype digital forecast' and click on any point on the map to get predicted surface winds. Kinda' handy and will give you a piece of the puzzle.
http://ifps.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/dwf?siteID=TWC
For long range (more than 24 hrs) winds aloft and direction, I go here:
http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/winds/
Then, for the really good stuff I go here to get the Skew-T plots
http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/
But this site isn't intuitively obvious. for Box Canyon, I type in "TUS" in the location box. for Miller, type in "FHU". Tucson is -7hrs GMT, so for the 11am conditions, look at 1800hrs (and so on). After it loads the java file and you see the plot, and select your time of interest- it's often helpful to click on the 'get text' button to easily see a wind direction vs altitude plot. The models are updated daily from the morning soundings which usually isn't up until after 7am. Sometimes 7:30am. So- it's the best source of data for 'today'.