Weather, surf and tide info

[dpvandy01]

Closed on a Condo in Cape Coral today and completed a survey and purchase on a boat for the Cape Coral and Fort Myers area. What is a good source Weather, surf and Tidal information for this area.

 

[fwebster]

I am on the Gulf Coast up in the Panhandle.

I use the NWS marine weather and find it to be very accurate for planning a day's activity on the water, with a minor exception: Their wave height and period is an educated guess, however, what drives the sea condition is the winds and their wind forecast is acurate. Check it daily since things change here change as fronts move, accelerate, or slow down.

If I am at the beach house where we have computer access, I use "weatherunderground.com", whose marine weather is directly from the NWS. Their radar is also very good.

For tides, the NWS and weather underground have tide info. Nearly every marina or chandlery on the coast have free tide charts. I keep a tide chart on the boat and I also use the tide function on my e12X Raymarine MFD.

Here is a tip on Florida coastal weather forecasting. Ignore the local TV stations and The Weather Channel. Both tend to amplify or sensationalize the bad in a forecast because it drives viewers. They are forecasting for the people on land, not boaters. The weather 3-5 miles inland from the Gulf is impacted by the moisture from the Gulf and when that moisture gets a little ways inland and the heat rises from the land mass, thunder storms are spawned. There are many days each summer and fall where I'd be at home if I trusted the 70%-90% rain forecast the morning TV weather report, but instead, we went boating and had perfect weather anchored at an island a few miles off the beach as we watched the thunder storms fall and drench the city and airport. Learn to read the weather and frontal movement. If the storms are offshore and moving toward land, be careful because the Gulf can get down right ornery.

Enjoy the Gulf coast.... it is a great boating area.

 

[JimT]

TideTrac is a great app for tide info

 

[doozie]

You can put the fish/hunt FLORIDA app on your phone, gives Fish info,tides,weather info and more