Re: [Paddlewise] Accuracy of Canadian Government weather reports

Doug Lloyd wrote:

> Matt and fellow POW's (Prisoners of Weather),
> 
> I took the liberty to phone Environment Canada on Friday. [big snip]
>
> and would like to talk to someone senior regarding forecast policy and
> their derivation of forecasted wind speeds. Disscussion, for those
> interested, was as follows [mongo snip]

> I thanked the forecaster and told him I appreciated their continued
> commitment to the boating public. [snip] I do know that the
> American forecasts I listen to are often much more accurate if you follow
> up 4 hours later and listen to the observations -- they usually align with
> the earlier predictions. [snip]

> Bottom line, keep a sharp weather eye out on the water. Sorry for long
> post, but as we are all anally retentive...

Thanks for pursuing this, Doug.  I would not have had the patience and
stick-to-it-iveness.

I suspect that it is tough for anybody, be it EC or NOAA/NWS, to get wind
predictions as reliable as we would like.  And, I agree EC has a tough
forecast job on the BC coast, and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca area.

Of necessity, I'm pretty self-reliant when it comes to wind/weather, on my
"home" waters, though I have been nailed a few times, particularly in winter,
by outflow winds.
  
FWIW, the NWS misses its share down here, also -- and for similar reasons, I
suspect -- not much actual data coming in from the west.  Not as happy a
situation as forecasting air mass behavior in the center of the continent,
where there is a huge body of information from ground observations in all
directions.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

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