Trip planning and factoring for wind

[un1teee]

With the winds howling today, and me considering taking a trip from LA to Salt Lake City, how do you get good information about the weather, and in particular wind for the trip?

[Daquenzer]

Weather App. Plug in the cities along the route where you are going and you can see their forecasts.

[field & stream]

Go to each state’s road conditions webpage and search the route number you will be traveling. We frequently encounter warnings or road closures due to wind (or snow).

[TitusNW]

Weather app is good. Also bookmark windfinder.com. Great visuals and predictions for the day and more


Steve



Here's Las Vegas:

https://www.windfinder.com/#10/36.11...08T00:00Z/spot

[JeffKim]

I use my iPhone weather app (also), there's a wind display that can be zoomed in or out. It's accessible via the pancake squares. It's not predictive en route but I get it out to confirm why we're getting crappy mileage going into the wind.

I'll check out windfinder.com, thanks.

[DCPAS]

I use the National Weather Service website to look at locations along the way. The webpage for any city includes a link to a hourly weather forecast chart with winds, among many other things, and you can choose what period to look at. If there is active weather I also will look at the link for the forecast discussion.

[Toldfield]

I would use NWS. Go to NWS Forecast Office Los Angeles, CA, click on Current Conditions, then Observations. That will bring up a map showing wind and temperatures for the southwest US. From that map you can move all around the country or zoom into your route. Like this...

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?obs=true&wfo=lox

[dennis3751]

I think the good news is that an Airstream is much less affected by wind than the boxy trailers. Once we were driving across an area with steady 25 and up winds. All the other trailers and semis were noticably tilting from the wind blowing across the road. Our ‘76 Ambassador and Dodge 2500 Ram were barely nudged.

[Rosey Jet]

I use an app called OnTheWay. Check it out, it’s been very accurate for weather along the routes we have traveled.

[Rey.A]

Originally Posted by un1teee

With the winds howling today, and me considering taking a trip from LA to Salt Lake City, how do you get good information about the weather, and in particular wind for the trip?

I use Drive Weather. It gives weather conditions along your route and takes into consideration when you start the trip. Here is a link to the iOS version (not sure if they have an Android version).

[LBelle]

The "Windy" and the "NOAA - Clime" apps are both exceptional. Both have wind conditions and the NOAA has detailed weather, to as much localization as you want.

[Woody48]

Try rvweather.com This site was created by a fellow Airstreamer, Navy Rear Admiral and head of Meteorology, and Penn State Meteorology professor.

[Andy543]

Originally Posted by LBelle

The "Windy" and the "NOAA - Clime" apps are both exceptional. Both have wind conditions and the NOAA has detailed weather, to as much localization as you want.

I'll second windy.com

[Barkfunkler]

I used to be a commercial fisherman and used sailflow. Works just as great on land as on water

[SuperTrouper]

DriveWeather and Windy.

[un1teee]

Love the feedback. Thank you for sharing these wonderful resources.

[BGClassic]

Originally Posted by Woody48

Try rvweather.com This site was created by a fellow Airstreamer, Navy Rear Admiral and head of Meteorology, and Penn State Meteorology professor.

+1 for rvweather.com. Before Dave's site came online, he provided us valuable (free) travel advice via email on two of our 7-week long trips out west. Have not tried his site yet, though. It's a good data point. He provided accurate advice on winds across ND and IA. Fortunately, our rig does well in the wind, due to the weight and most likely the hitch.