Dry, wet, cold, hot, windy...

ever since I started riding over 20 years ago, I find I am much more in tune with the weather
Where do you get your weather info from, how accurate is it and how does it affect when or how you ride
For a long time I referenced to the BBC weather app, but found it more vague and unreliable, so no cross check with the BBC weather website and pay close attention to the map function.
The only weather I don't ride in is high winds, and torrential downpours, but haven't had to take the train in for the 30 mile commute for well over a year.

 

Just as well you don't live up in Scotland then i used to go out in all weathers but nowadays I'm a fair weather biker as most of my riding is on twisties i don't get any enjoyment riding in the wet now..so when it's dry i drop everything and go out on my bike

 

I kind of stopped taking weather forecasts seriously when they got rid of the isobars and wind speed symbols and put up fluffy clouds with raindrops coming out of them. I used to rely on a late night weather forecast on tv as I was heavily into windsurfing in my early mid 20's and there was the last one at night ( yes children! There was a time when television wasn't 24 hours) which was fantastic, and it dictated wether I'd bunk off work and go and windsurf for the day. I used to do it all year round so forecasts were important to me. Now it's cloudy with rain at times and clear patches later! With a cloud with a bit of rain on it covering the SW of England. I have 3 apps that usually show 3 different things but generally one is right at some point during the day

 

I use two apps and generalise, I also use web cams to where I want to go for a 'real' look. If I were to go to a place 100 miles away I'd look at possibly 3 web cams in a line to see the true picture as well as forecast. Bomb proof! So what can go wrong???

 

I look out the window ,or see if the cows are lying down!

 

I never take any notice of what the BBC forecast is especially if its Louise Leer or Helen Willets giving out the info. Seriously the BBC forecast is generally wrong anyway, even the local one. I use the following as it's usually much more accurate
http://www.xcweather.co.uk/

 

Now that is the sort of thing I need, thank you very very much
...now bookmarked

 

No prob's. Glad to help

 

Exactamundo, Ms Verasamy is a right little tease

 

I had to Google Lucy V (Lucy Verasamy) and look at images...
yup, sorry, what we talking about here?

 

just downloaded rain today app which gives you a 3 hour rain forecast and the full version sends you an alert when there is rain due!

 

Use these YR.NO , even tho' it's Norwegian site, pretty accurate, plus use 'my places' and you can build up a spread of local places and get a good idea what is coming and from where

and the met office site, between the two of them you get a decent idea of what's coming. Metoffice app on phone is quite good.

Hate BBC, they are so pessimistic. You would never leave house if you believed them. They take metoffice and just make it more miserable, think its since the big storm 20 years ago and Michael Fish got it so wrong, they just tell you the worst and if it's - better nobody complains.
Think a seaside town tried to take them to court for ruining their bank holiday trade a few years ago - said it was going to hammer down, it didn't - so no-one went and ruined their BH weekend for them !!!

 

That or manage a football team, same result but more money, plus if you fail someone else will give you heaps of money to do it all again

 

That's a good one Wayne. (still shows shite weather though!)

 

Couldn't agree more Dougie

 

The thing is most of the BBC presenters are Met Office employees, although I think some local ones are BBC staff. ITV started using the MET Office a little over 25 years ago. Some ITV presenters are trained meteorologists, whilst others are employed cos they look nice in a tight frock.

And Auntie Google also tellls me that starting this year BBC presenters will be employed by MeteoGroup who put in a lower tender for the job than the Met Office. Meteo who already provide forecasting for SKY and Channel 4, was created 20 years ago by a Dutch Met Office weather presenter, and is now global and owned by a massive investment group. So as a private business they obviously aim to please the end consumer, so in future expect every day to be 'scorchio'.

 

As above. Living in Scotland the default assumption is that the weather is going to be crap on any given day. Don't need a weather forecast to tell us. On the odd day the weather is good it will invariably be when we are working. I remember one day last year where the sun shone most of the day and I was out on the bike.