Weather Forecasts - Which websites?

[MustardSeedMum]

You know you have maple disease...when you look up the weather forecast several times a day.

On a more serious note though - which is your go-to website(s) for weather forecasts?
I've checked several sites, and can't believe the discrepancies I'm seeing.

So, despite the fact that the forecasts have been dismally inaccurate pretty much this entire season,
which one(s) do you folks find most reliable?

[GramaCindy]

Hello MustardSeedMum,
I have become somewhat of a "Weather Junkie" and will tell you which sites that I follow. Accuweather, Intellicast, NOAA, Wunderground and Weather.com. Oddly enough for out latest winter storm, I was surprised that they ALL posted the exact same Severe Weather Warning from the National Weather Service. I am leaning more to " Intellicast" and the NOAA. How about you?…Sounds like a good debate may get started here.

[spencer11]

i use weather.com i dont know how accurate it is but i have a weater forcast unit thing at home thats pretty acurate. the forecast goes about 2 days ahead.

spencer

[Brian66]

Here in Ontario I only know of the Weather Network or Environment Canada. I find Environment Canada to be more ambitious with their forcasting and the Weather Network more moderated. I check both and go with what my gut tells me. In the end if the sap flows, it flows. I am finding that I want to buy a good barometer. The atmospheric pressure can be just as much a factor as temperature but radio broadcasters rarely give it and it is not prominently displayed on the weather websites with temperature and sky conditions.

[happy thoughts]

I like accuweather.com because it's based near me and also because of the firefox extension called forecastfox. If you use firefox as your browser you may want to look into it. It shows the 5 day forecast with highs and lows in your status bar. You can easily reach all kinds of weather info from there including the detailed hourly to the 5-15 day outlook. Severe weather alerts display when appropriate. There's also a mouse over live radar feature. Its free so you can't beat the price. Download here if interested.....

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/forecastfox-weather/

[Russell Lampron]

I use weather.com mostly. I also listen to the forecast on the radio and watch the weather on the local TV station. I find that the accuweather.com forecast is usually too warm for my area.

[cyblood]

I use the same as GramaCindy plus I follow along with my own barometer since the barometric pressure affects sap flow as well...

[GramaCindy]

I use the same as GramaCindy plus I follow along with my own barometer since the barometric pressure affects sap flow as well...
Call me ignorant here, cyblood, but could you please explain the barometric pressure in regards to sap flow?

[happy thoughts]

Low pressure often helps sap flow. I've had the heaviest flows when the weather is miserable as long as temps cooperate.

[MustardSeedMum]

Looks like you folks in the US have more choices. Like Brian66, I'm using the Weather Network. Which is no help to me. Pretty much every alert they've put out for our area this season has been wrong. And Enviro Canada doesn't seem to have my particular location.

I'm just now finding out about barometric pressure. Had no idea that had an effect on sap flow.

[GramaCindy]

Low pressure often helps sap flow. I've had the heaviest flows when the weather is miserable as long as temps cooperate.A

AH HA! I've seen that. Time for a barometer. Thanks happy thoughts

[happy thoughts]

Hi GramaCindy- if you're interested in the why behind it, the way I understand it is that sap flow causes pressure to increase inside the tree. That pressure will be greater than the atmospheric pressure outside the tree. Thus there is a pressure gradient and sap will want to flow from high pressure to low. Lower barometric pressures increase that gradient and voila! If the sap is flowing it will flow well out your taps.

Hope you're having a great year!

[WI Sugarpop]

I've seen it 34* or 35* with snow or rain coming down and the trees were running like crazy. We associated that with the low pressure that we were having.

[happy thoughts]

I've seen it 34* or 35* with snow or rain coming down and the trees were running like crazy. We associated that with the low pressure that we were having.

That's exactly what's happening today at my house. Rainy and snowy, low pressure, never got below freezing last night, the temp is 35F and the taps are running well.

[cyblood]

Barometric pressure (along with your altitude) can also effect the true finishing boiling point of your syrup as well, but that's a whole nother discussion! Just type "barometric" in the search window to find more discussions on the topic. In the meantime, here's a nice concise article that speaks about sap flow influences:

http://www.massmaple.org/sap.php

Cheers!