How do you guys find ACCURATE wind conditions?

[jackdale]

Do you have wind instruments?

Not sure where you are located but the weather network seems to have a lots of stations.

[carl762]

I use National Weather Service and Sailflow.com. Sailflow should work on your phone, too.

[SlowButSteady]

For Newport Beach, I would check the weather at SNA (Santa Ana - John Wayne Airport; clicky-clicky). It might not give you the exact conditions at the harbor, but it shouldn't shouldn't be too different, since SNA is only five or six miles from the lower bay. Alternatively, get one of these:

[HUGOSALT]

Although probably not as accurate as the "Serpent River Weather Station".... on the west coast one might try dial a buoy or check
if the government or universities maintain weather buoys up and down the coast. Here on Long Island Sound the (Univ. of Ct./my sound) maintains 6-7 weather buoys that report real time conditions. Believe there is network up and down east coast
as well.

[hellosailor]

Newbie, you're bascially going to have to study meteorology and there are no shortcuts. You need to wrap your head around how winds change, what affects them, what affects the reliability of forecasts in your local area, and then do something that few commercial weathercasters will do: Assign a probability to every forecast you hear, or make.

The best may come from NOAA but we often call that voice on the radio "the noaa nuthing man" because he often knows nothing about what's really going on outside.

If you don't understand the dynamics of the whole system, the snippets that are put out to prevent confusing the public just aren't good to do any better for you.

[capttb]

I find Surfline most useful, the wind forecasts are from Weather Underground but the cameras are worth a thousand words and charts, take a look at the Wedge right now.
The Wedge Surf Report and HD Surf Cam | SURFLINE.COM

[CalebD]

The closest to real time whether you can get is from the NDBC (Nat'l Data Buoy Center) from either a buoy or your local airport.
Here is the link to the buoy 19 miles off Boston Harbor:
NDBC - Station 44013
Here is a map of the reporting buoys in your area: NDBC - Northeast USA Recent Marine Data
Sailflow.com is also pretty good.

[sailguy40]

Try here... National Weather Service Marine Forecasts

[Faster]

For us, this site: Pacific - Georgia Basin - Weather Conditions - Environment Canada gives weather station data with a 24 hour 'look back' as well as forecasts.

While the forecasts are, as always, a tad flexible, the data from these stations and buoys is updated hourly and with the history you can look back and see what was near you at the time....

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Faster

For us, this site: Pacific - Georgia Basin - Weather Conditions - Environment Canada gives weather station data with a 24 hour 'look back' as well as forecasts.

While the forecasts are, as always, a tad flexible, the data from these stations and buoys is updated hourly and with the history you can look back and see what was near you at the time....

Great site.

Before I ever venture in Johnstone Strait, I check the current conditions at Fanny Island using the Environment Canada web site.