Weather Sites - top tips
This section should help newer members and visitors especially and could be a useful reminder to some 'old hands'.
Using the links at left hand side of our homepage ....
xcweather (labelled 'weather') - gives a forecast for the club's postcode location. If you want any of the other maps/views for this site just select 'home' at its top left, then put the cursor on Manchester and on Leeds/Bradford (or anywhere else in the country). This site gives a fairly reliable wind forecast for Watergrove.
Windguru - is centred on WPWC (like xcweather now is). The top section of the page uses the same weather model as xcweather, but shows more days ahead. Ignore the lower sections - these models always over-predict wind strength at WPSC.
BBC - doesn't seem to be as accurate as xcweather for WPWC. The BBC can under-predict the wind speed, though its temperatures are more accurate than xc, especially in the Winter. And the BBC is more accurate than xcweather for Fleetwood.
Our webcam and wind speed links show current conditions at the Club. If these are working (not always the case as we lack mains electricity) they are best for current conditions. It could be different, though, by the time you get to the Club and rigged up!
And finally, here are some sites which we couldn't squeeze onto the homepage.
Weather Underground - is a weather station about 1.5 miles away in Wardle and 120ft lower down. It gives wind speed in km/h every 5 minutes (20km/h = 11knots = 13mph)! Be sure to scroll to bottom of page to make sure current reading is actually current as the weather station very often isn't working properly.
bigsalty It seems to use the same weather model as xcweather, but what is particularly good is that it has a number of North West locations listed.
fleetwood This is a weather station giving actual readings. May be worth a look at from time to time to compare with other forecasts. Experience indicates that xcweather may under-predict wind speed at Fleetwood and the BBC may be more accurate.
