Best model for west coast boating
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I'm planning to bring a boat up the West Coast of the US from Oxnard to San Francisco Bay. With the weather, at this time of the year, we are carefully trying to pick a period where we can make it without excessive wind and waves. I figure it will take us ~four days.
Is any one of the weather models more accurate or better suited for boating applications?
Thanks for your help!
Dave
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@Dave-Witte
Hi Dave,
I don't have experience sailing along the California coast, but I can tell you how to find in Windy which is the best model for wind forecasting in that area. In the browser version, select Reported wind to get on the screen the weather stations which display this parameter and only the professional stations (wmo, airport, ship/buoys). Forget personal weather stations (pws), they often provide incorrect wind data.
By clicking on a station, you get its recent recordings. Click Observation vs forecast to have a comparison of this recorded data with the model forecasts.
And on the right you find which is the best model over several days (the one which displays the lowest median error). In this example it is Meteoblue, but this model is only available in point forecast table. ECMWF which is the default model is not so far.
Please note, at sea weather buoys are identified by a 5-digit number, while boats are identified by letters. Boats cannot be used for this comparison since they move.
You can make this type of comparison with several weather buoys and several weather stations on sea shore to get a better feeling.
