Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windy.com

windy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 222 posts

Re: Windy.com

#171

Post by bujak300 »

mmaunder wrote: post #29

Windy is great. The map is appealing, but be sure to check out the forecast view for a particular location. Also make sure you try different locations. I'm in the Salish Sea on Orcas Island in the San Juans and because we have a lot of topography here mixed with ocean, we have a lot of local effects, contour winds and so on and there are big differences between locations. Also note that Windy can get it wrong. I grew…

The forecast that worked best for me (at least in summer in Europe) was local sailplane text forecast from the respective national service. It was an interpretation of the model by a very experienced human with a big picture introduction ("this front" or that "high pressure area") and also expressed uncertainties. They are sometimes behind soft paywalls, though (need to register, but its free. There are some weird rules of the EU about some weather data - cannot be freely available. I don't get it)

Re: Windy.com

#172

Post by bujak300 »

hutzlibu wrote: post #80
mmaunder wrote: post #29

Windy is great. The map is appealing, but be sure to check out the forecast view for a particular location. Also make sure you try different locations. I'm in the Salish Sea on Orcas Island in the San Juans and because we have a lot of topography here mixed with ocean, we have a lot of local effects, contour winds and so on and there are big differences between locations. Also note that Windy can get it wrong. I grew…

"Also note that Windy can get it wrong." I kind of lost trust in it, when I was in the middle of a thunderstorm, yet windy showed me all sunny. Granted, it was in the alps and forcasting there is hard, but it was the current state of things they got wrong.

Convective ("heat") thunderstorms are pretty much impossible to forecast precisely. On the day of, I'd recommend to use the radar, satellite and wind measurement, to get a picture what's happening, not the forecast anymore.

Re: Windy.com

#173

Post by hutzlibu »

bujak300 wrote: post #172
hutzlibu wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Also note that Windy can get it wrong." I kind of lost trust in it, when I was in the middle of a thunderstorm, yet windy showed me all sunny. Granted, it was in the alps and forcasting there is hard, but it was the current state of things they got wrong.

Convective ("heat") thunderstorms are pretty much impossible to forecast precisely. On the day of, I'd recommend to use the radar, satellite and wind measurement, to get a picture what's happening, not the forecast anymore.

"Use the radar, satellite and wind measurement"

I did. And they showed me no clouds, rain or wind worth mentioning.

Re: Windy.com

#174

Post by bujak300 »

hugoromano wrote: post #100
sealaska wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using a different weather app or website that is more accurate? My understanding is that windy primarily just shows data from different forecast models, so isn't your issue really with the third-party models, not with Windy's weather client?

My grandfather was a meteorologist (taught me forecast based observation and weather station data), and I am also a first officer half of the year (as well have education in modelling for navigation). This year was rough with modelling. I use Windy to validate my forecast and navigation decisions at sea. As we sail, anemometer readings are crosscheck with the forecast from windy and mine, and windy didn't go well. So…

The weather models themselves are evolving - there was a big upgrade of GFS last year for example

Re: Windy.com

#175

Post by bujak300 »

thecaio wrote: post #106

Any kite surfers? How have you found Windy for spotting decent places to surf? I’m a fan of Windy but sometimes find it a bit “lowres” in the sense that it does a good job on translating wind direction/force in broader, more general areas while it’s hit and miss for specific spots (eg beaches or nooks). POVs?

The highest resolution model Arome could help but at that level your intuition and experience is essential. BTW The most notable kitesurfer would be the founder and CEO of windy.

Re: Windy.com

#176

Post by bujak300 »

35mm wrote: post #38

Does anyone know what Windy’s business model is? I’m just curious because it’s not clear to me.

The business model is that the founder is co-owner of seznam.cz ("czech google/yandex")

Re: Windy.com

#177

Post by yccs27 »

easytiger wrote: post #162
yccs27 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By default, Windy uses the ECMWF weather model. You can also change it to GFS or ICON, which many american forecast websites use. ECMWF, GFS and ICON are made by national/international forecasting agencies. IBM also has its own proprietary weather forecasting service, notably used by The Weather Channel. Other apps mostly use one of these models or aggregate predictions from different services (e.g. AccuWeather claim…

> IBM also has its own proprietary weather forecasting service, notably used by The Weather Channel. Is it not the case that IBM bought the weather channel to acquire the technology with no interest in the WC business?

IBM bought The Weather Company, which was the holding company of The Weather Channel. The forecasting technology is now owned by IBM, which licenses the weather data to The Weather Channel.

Re: Windy.com

#178

Post by bujak300 »

wayneftw wrote: post #50

This is also a PWA that you can add to your home screen in iOS for a nice full screen view.

On an ipad the app is a usability disaster. On android the app is ok but the web version has the new features first anyway
Post reply on HN