The weather is an ever present concern to the sailor: hence the necessity to maintain access to an accurate forecast of the weather in the area of planned sailing. For the purposes of this site an attempt will be made to keep reasonable track of relevant weather by indicating a direct short term forecast together with appropriate charts covering the next few days. The latter should indicate any major changes in the weather pattern.
Short Term Forecasts :
The following sites can be used for short term 'accurate' forecasts in the Atlantic:-
Meteo-France Shipping Forecasts .
Western Atlantic including the Antilles are
outside the areas covered in the English version of the forecast. The overall shipping areas covered are shown in the attached figure, see 
. Eastern Atlantic and Europe are available in English, for those areas click HERE
NOAA Western Atlantic covers areas left of 35W but not straightforward to identify relevant forecast area.
Satellite Image (Atlantic Visible) (See the weather over the Atlantic yourself -Note takes a while to load)
Longer Term Atlantic Forecasts :
Longer term information on the weather can be pursued at the following links which provide indications of wind speed and wave height and pressure systems across the Atlantic: they are in order of current usefulness:
| Atlantic Weather Model for up to 7 days ahead - probably needs broadband |
| USNavy has a wealth of information available to the public: for current purposes the following link is particularly appropriate USNavy wave/wind forecasts. |
| WeatheronlineUK (opens new page): Lots of useful information including key Trade Winds areas in Atlantic for several days ahead. Current page set to Eastern Caribbean also provides options for sea temp and satellite picture. |
Unisys Atlantic Weather Scene : Covers up to 48 hours ahead. This is similar to the German site referred to below but gives a slightly better feel for the location of the High and Low pressure areas. The link given shows +48hr ahead but +00hr , +24hr and +36hr also available. This site also summarises current hurricane and tropical storm information - follow hurricane2007 link - ( If you want to look back to previous years or other world areas follow allhurricanedata ) |
| German Site World Scene : Covers up to 5 days ahead. This covers all the major oceans of the world!! You need to select, from the top area of the linked page, the oceanic area -currently SudAmerika and then pick the number of hours forward that you wish to view. The graphic then provides wind and wave height predictions. |
| NOAA.Gov Site: Major American site - selected link provides surface charts up to 96 hr ahead for both West(10E-45W NW Atlantic) and East Atlantic(45W-85W NW Atlantic). Note: same page gives useful wind wave forecasts and also satellite images for whole North Atlantic -as given above |
Meteo France (Atlantic Pictures) : Covers about 36 hours ( I suspect you need Broadband to benefit fully from the available animations - the selected link goes directly to synoptics (actually 'frontes') but you can then also select winds (ventes) and from there get wave heights (vagues - I hope). |
Where to Find Weather Forecasts
Frank Singletons Weather Opus : All you wanted to know about finding weather sources. We have opened this site as a new page because it needs it and, of course that is what you are supposed to do- Free Spirit site will still be there when you close the new page
Other Forecasts For UK and Europe:
The following links are relevant to UK and Western Europe only:
| Met Office Inshore Forecasts 48hr (UK coastal cruising only ) |
| Metcheck 7 day forecasts (UK inland only but covers any town |
| Synoptic Charts these charts cover Western Europe very well and give forecasts up to 5days ahead alternatively follow an animated version at MetOffice(Broadband recommended). |
UK Shipping Forecast (Only covered offshore down to Northern Spain-for info on areas press  ) |
