Best weather app for GDMBR ?

[Noosa_nomad]

Hi, any suggestions on a weather app for my GDMBR journey soon? thanks.

[John Nettles]

I use a variety of them.  I use (in no order) Windy, Accuweather, and Weatherbug.  I find that the NOAA website "Hourly Weaher Forecast" graph is pretty accurate for a couple of hours out, especially on wind directions. Rain forecasts on any of the websites are iffy but the radar is of course pretty accurate for about an hour before arrival. With any rain forecast, cross-reference with the NOAA hourly graphic which gives the anticipated amount of rain as a website can have a forecast "for rain all day" but then you see on the NOAA hourly graphic the expected amount is only say 0.03 inches (not much at all) so you could still ride.

Hope this helps, John

[Noosa_nomad]

Thanks John. I used one called Weather in New Zealand recently and that worked well. The local NZ weather bureau was full of ads. It is a generic type and I use it to see how cold it is in Montana atm🥶 I’ll look up the others you suggested.👍

Cheers, Tim

[jamawani]

Tim -

You are aware that there are many long stretches of the GDMBR with no connectivity
and also long stretches without any place to recharge devices.
Satellite phones and solar chargers do get around this,
but part of the attraction of the GDMBR is the disconnection.

Jama

[davidbonn]

Carry a power bank or two for sure.

Why do you need an app?

I find either of these Siri incantations do the job most of the time:

"Hey Siri, what's the weather like?"

or

"Hey Siri, what's the weather like in Eureka Montana?"

Also, nothing is stopping you from googling "salida CO weather" or "fernie BC weather" and you'll get decent enough results.

My own opinion is that the NOAA weather product is superior to the Accuweather and Weather Channel products, and the Environment Canada is better than NOAA.

[Noosa_nomad]

Hi, I have 2 power-banks, just in case😅 I also have a Garmin In-Reach if I’m desperate. I use the Bureau of Meteorology app where I live in Queensland and it is very good. I was trying to find a similar one-stop solution for the USA. Like a lot of things on this ride it will be a steep learning curve for the first few days/weeks. Thanks to all for their advice.

[davidbonn]

I've started to play with Epic Ride Weather which seems pretty promising...

[Noosa_nomad]

Thanks. I’ll have a look

[horses60]

Hi,
After three years and 21,000 km, for me the best app is Windy flanked by Meteo Blue. I recommend using the European weather model(ECMWF), which is much more reliable than the American one (94%).

[John Nettles]

Horses,
I did a little bit of research on your claim that the ECMWF is more accurate since I honestly didn't know much about weather models.  Turns out there a a few of them but ECMWF and the US' GFS model (made by the US NOAA Weather Service) are the two biggies.

What I learned was sort of interesting.  It turns out the ECMWF is GENERALLY more accurate the closer to the present than GFS but the inverse is true also.  So an app that uses ECMWF (like Windy) is more accurate say for the next two or three days but beyond 3+ days, an app using the GFS model starts to become more accurate.  However, in more extreme local weather conditions, the GFS has a slight advantage the closer to present.  Some apps, like Windy, allow you to choose which model you want to use (click on the three horizontal bar circle thing in the lower right corner and then scroll down to the Forecast Model section) while others like Accuweather seem to use their own proprietary model based on blending the various weather models out there. 

All that said, I still like how the NOAA Hourly Graphic chart shows the amount of rain forecast as, to me, that is very important information as to whether I want to ride or not based on not "weather" it will rain but how much rain.  I will have to start looking at the various models for the temp, wind, etc. forecast for the next day or two to see what I like but it looks like the ECMWF apps may win out. 

Learn something new everyday!  Thanks, John

[horses60]

An engineer-mountaineer-sailor friend who lives between Colorado and Florida had suggested Windy, then I went to look up what the best models are(https://windy.app/blog/what-is-ecmwf-weather-forecast-model.html#:~:text=The%20ECMWF%20(European%20Centre%20for,reliable%20model%20currently%20in%20existence.).

Let's say that out of jingoism (I am of European descent ) when I read that the European model was accurate, I stopped the search...

[John Nettles]

Yep, but to me, since that was a Windy authored article and they promoted what they use, I did more research.  I personally do not care what model is more accurate.  I was surprised to see they are both global.  I would have thought the European model would be best in Europe and the NWS model best in America.