Hi everyone - hope the 4th was fun and above all safe!!

Question

Do you rely on the NOAA radio information or their web site. Today we were planning on going to Lake Michigan and the forecast on the web was 1 ft or less-- for the family that would have been ideal. However, the radio says 1-3ftrs- for me no issue but the family really doesn't like it too much.

HELP

Thanks

3pointstar

http://glos.us/data-access/data-portal

I use this for the Great Lakes. You can see live buoy data. So far it has been accurate for me.

I usually check buoy data and wind speed.

The noaa forecast for inland Lake Erie by us is a joke. I gave up on them years ago. accuweather has been better at predicting wind speed and direction by me.

NOAA is one tool but, as noted, can be notoriously inaccurate on the Great Lakes. Check other web sites and I like this weather radar site for the entire Great Lakes region http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/centgrtlakes_loop.php . Also talk to other boaters.

Yeah, the Great Lakes Radar loop - http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/centgrtlakes_loop.php is pretty hard to beat. I usually go to the big, Continental USA loop at: http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/full_loop.php to see what's coming our way over the next day or so.

As for the written NOAA forecasts, I don't put a whole lot of stock in them.

NOAA forecasts are always wrong and I find them to be useless. They always underestimate the sea conditions here in Miami. You can get a better forecast just by looking out the window. I use wind guru and sail flow websites both are pretty accurate. with sail flow being slightly better at least here and in the Bahamas.