Weather websites for predicting my commute?

[Ganymede]

Hello - I'm a new member of CycleChat. I've been lurking for ages so have been reading all your threads, but finally took the plunge this morning.

Here's my first question - what websites do you use to predict whether you can commute or not?

I don't mind cycling in bad weather, but sometimes I have to arrive looking respectable, and sometimes I have to come home late, or carrying something, so I always check the forecast. Accuweather.com used to be good, but I think it's gone off recently - I've been looking at meteoblue.com which seems better. The Met office website has poor graphics (in my view) but is it reliable?

I'd be grateful for your feedback, thanks.

 

[Blurb]

Combo of Metoffice and raintoday.co.uk. It's never going to be 100% and I always end up carrying a little too much gear , especially now it's winter. Cold and wet for 11 miles isn't very pleasant.

 

[gaz]

forecast.io for a nice looking website.

I use a mix of that and the met office and weather pro apps on my phone.

 

[captainhastings]

I just use the http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather seems pretty close most the time for me.
Just so I can get the right clothing ready for the morning

 

[ianrauk]

+1 For BBC weather, usually pretty good.
Also Metcheck and www.yr.no

 

[J.Primus]

Don't use Yahoo. It's the default on my phone and it's wildly pessimistic.

 

[Sappho96]

Bbc weather and wunderground for me. That and just noseying out the window once i wake up

 

[4F]

metcheck

 

[400bhp]

weather.com

 

[Sara_H]

My Mum claims we get whatever weather they had in New York two weeks ago.

 

[fossyant]

What do you mean ride or not ?

Clothing choice, or swap to MTB for ice !

I use the old fashioned method - look out of the window !

 

[Ganymede]

Thanks for all the replies! - I should probably go away and check all of them and then check them against the actual weather, then write out a chart and report back.

I'm afraid I probably won't but I will have a good old rummage. I was partly encouraged into cycle commuting by Richard Ballatyne's assertion that it only rained 12% of the time and that most of that rain wasn't heavy, but this October has been way above average for rain, and my supposedly waterproof cycle coat suffered a bit of a fail in the extremely heavy downpour I got caught in a couple of weeks ago, so I'm being cautious.

 

[wilkotom]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the OneDiaryBot on Twitter. Tells you expected wind direction, strength and chance of rain for your location every morning:

http://www.onediary.com/cycling_weather

I don't even look at normal weather forecasts most of the time, this is more than enough

 

[Ganymede]

Wow, wilkotom, I admire the terseness of that onediary thing. I'd have to sign up to Twitter though...

 

[Arjimlad]

I use the met office app on my phone..usually reliable for the next 24 hours and has a satellite rainfall imaging thingy which is very useful.