John, thanks for doing this.

Please consider adding to the weather page:
Soundings from FSL: http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/
Winds aloft: http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/A ... se=azimuth
Jet Stream Position: http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag192.html

I'm not wild about the particular jet stream position forecast I've listed above, so if anyone has a better one, please suggest it.

John,

The FSL page is pretty nerdy, and for neophytes needs some explanation and suggested settings along with the link. TUS is the obvious choice for the sounding, and 8 hours for a morning forecast. but which model do you usually use? NAM? or something shorter-term?

The tutorial links on the page itself will handle the rest.

Thanks for the suggestions,
John L.

jlowery wrote:
The FSL page is pretty nerdy...

Guess that defines me pretty well. Still love that FSL site.

For FSL I use Op40 for near-term forecasts, which are much more accurate than the longer term forecasts, which I get from Bak40. So, Op40 if I'm looking late at night or on the day of flying, and Bak40 if I want to get a rough forecast the day before flying.

For location, I use lat/lon for the site of interest. So, for Miller Canyon I'll use 31.424047, -110.283942.

For "Start Valid Time" I use the earliest time I think I can be on launch.

For "Number of hours" I specify the window of time in which I'm interested, usually 3-6 hours.

Poke the Java-based plots button to get the SkewT plot, and on that page poke the buttons for the various hours of interest. The wind barbs on the side give you a good overview, and the "Get text" button will produce more detail.

The SkewT plot is a good way to see the predicted lapse rate and the levels and depth of any inversions.

Thanks John L. for updating this page.

I use been using XC skies a lot this year and I seem to like a lot of the features in it.



When I was in CA, I used The Soaring Predictor. It seemed to be about as good and anything else. Sometime they got it right and sometimes they didn't. It was another one to compare if it lined up with the majority of the other forecasts.

I thought about adding XC skies, but it's a paid subscription so didn't go for it. I can put in a link for subscriber's convenience if you think it would help, though.

John Wolfe's suggestions are up now.