A buddy of mine turned me on to this site full of handy weather links.
No matter which type of weather illustrations you like, it's probably on here.

http://www.vansairforce.net/weather.htm#radars

Thanks hotrod! Much appreciated - I am the weather maven around our house.

Jan

hotrod, thanks for posting the link! That is a great page; its been bookmarked and moved to the top of my weather list.

A weather link I use frequently was not on the list. It is http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi

It requires the 4 letter ICAO identifier of an airport that collects METAR data, but that isn't much of a limitation. The best part of this site is that they use temperature, dew point, humidity and lapse rate information (an maybe some other NWS data) to calculate predicted heights of the cloud deck a couple of days in advance. It is pretty darned accurate and that is what brings me back to the site regularly.

Flyhound wrote:A weather link I use frequently was not on the list. It is http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi

It requires the 4 letter ICAO identifier of an airport that collects METAR data, but that isn't much of a limitation. The best part of this site is that they use temperature, dew point, humidity and lapse rate information (an maybe some other NWS data) to calculate predicted heights of the cloud deck a couple of days in advance. It is pretty darned accurate and that is what brings me back to the site regularly.

Thanks, that one is pretty useful, too. Another one added to the top bookmarks!

Another good way to check wx: I just bought an android tablet & am running the free Avare sectional/ GPS app. I don't have a data plan, but if I have access to Wi-Fi or my hotspot, I can click "update radar" and get a pretty good radar image. Kinda handy in that I can choose how long the radar info will be displayed, also if it obscures the underlying sectional or not. I have it set for 50% so I can still see the sectional even where it's heavy wx.

Hotrod, After you have some time with Avare I'd be interested in hearing what you think.

I've only flown a few short flights with it, but I've fooled around on the ground with it some, just figuring out how the features work. I think most of these apps probably do about the same stuff, whether they're paid or free. It's probably more about what you're used to than any actual differences between app A & app B. I like Avare so far, but then again this is my first touch-screen device and my first digital sectional app so maybe I just don't know any better. I'd suggest that if you've got an android phone or tablet, just download the app (it's free!) and give it a whirl. Otherwise, take a chance & buy one of these $100 tablets.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-fl ... Id=6089241

Considering I've only got $100 into the tablet, and a little time velcro & scrap aluminum into the mount, I'd say it's pretty good bang for the buck.

Flown a little more with Avare, and while I like the moving map GPS and the sectional/AFD/plates features, the weather radar kinda sucks. BTW this is a single image, not a loop like some radar displays. You can de-select the radar image display after it's X number of minutes old. I usually set it for 30 minutes. You have to manually select to download it when you want it. Several times, I have downloaded it only to find that it doesn't display. I reset the time limit to 60 minutes and then it does, so I assume that the data is over 30 minutes old- even though I just downloaded it. This is a free app, I'm guessing they limit the wx to once-an-hour updates to keep their bandwidth costs down.

Anyway, I found a free wx radar app called MyRadar. An hour's worth of loop display, with the latest about 5 minutes old-- about as close to "real time" as I've seen anyone else have on their apps. I took the Samsung hotspot that I use for wireless internet access at home along for an airplane ride, it worked great for downloading MyRadar and also the latest METARs on Avare. It kinda balks sometimes, if I'm over an extremely rural area with (I assume) no cell towers. My usual altitude for local flying is around 1500', so it might do better picking up cell towers if I was higher.

Great links. Here is another one I find handy at a glance.


https://www.windyty.com/