When To Splash the Boat?

glenjustice

Posts: 48
Joined: 2007-11-29

One question on my mind – and I'm sure I'm not alone – is when the weather will allow me to get the boat back on the water. Late March? Mid April?

I know weather forecasting is one art that gets darker the farther you peer into the future (the 10-day forecast on weather.com is even suspect). But can you recommend any tools out there that may give a hint as to what the weather may look a month down the road?

Do weather pros put any stock at all in almanacs? Is there something better?

Submitted by glenjustice on Fri, 03/07/2008 - 10:11.

TheWeatherMan

Posts: 23
Joined: 2007-12-05

Goodness...what a hard question...especially since you didn't tell me where you live. If you live in San Diego...I say go out tomorrow! But seriously...the perfect website for your inquiry is the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction (CPC)...which can be accessed below:

www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov

Here...you can look at 6-10 day, 8-14 day, 1 month, even 3 month outlooks. They aren't "forecasts" like the 5-day forecast you see...but they can help provide what the general trend is going to be in temperature and precipitation. For example...if the chance of above average temps is in your area for next month...chances are you will be back in the water sooner than you normally could. Of course...once you get past 5-7 days...the uncertainty really increases so use this information as guidance...not gospel.

As for the weather almanac...I will admit they do use some real science (longer climate trends)...but as for specific forecasts months in advance...all I can say is "sometimes the blind squirrel gets the nut." Everyone will remember the big snowstorm that was predicted in the almanac...but never remember the forecasted snowstorms that end up as sunny days.

Fri, 03/07/2008 - 20:55