Return to the FLSC homepage
Click for Rochester, New York Forecast Click for Dansville, New York Forecast Click for Elmira, New York Forecast Click for Jamestown, New York Forecast

Weather and Forecast Information

Below are a number of links that are useful in accessing the weather and soaring outlook around central New York.

Automated Weather Observations

The hot links (underlined words) take you to the NOAA AWOS/ASOS weather site for the individual airport. Hourly readings are shown with a 24 hour history. For a real-time update on weather conditions at any of the airports below, the radio frequency or telephone number will work.

Soaring Forecast:

The link below is Kevin Ford's Thermal Index Ploting program that uses electronic weather info that is sent to Texas A&M University from throughout the U.S. Several notes on using this site:

Soaring Forecast Link (just click on the underlined words after you read below)

  • The program uses sounding data from weather balloons that are launched at 0Z and 12Z daily (most of the time). The closest sounding data for our flying area comes from the Buffalo weather office.
  • Typically the most current and useful sounding data seems to be available to the program after about 9:30 AM. As with any technology....occasionally it is not always available and the program will not produce a forecast. In these instances you can choose Albany or Pittsburgh for sounding data, but the weather maybe different than that expected in western/central New York state.
  • The program is pretty much self explanitory. Enter the RAOB (Buffalo) station from the pull down menu. Enter the complete report on the "radio button" by the RAOB list. In the next box you will need to enter a forecast high temp. for the day. You can either use the list ( Rochester and Buffalo are on the list) or enter in a temp. in the box manually (e.g.80 for 80 degrees F...etc.). The manual entry seems to give the best results. You will also need to click the "radio button" that chooses the max altitude. Unless you are carrying oxygen and it is a very unusual day for the Dansville area, 12000 feet is probably enough height. However, Rick Laford once told me to look at the max altitude (25000 feet) on the first pass as it may give you some useful data on where the thermal index changes between + and - on any given day. After the set-up of these few parameters...press "Submit Request" button at the bottom of the page and if all is working you should see a familiar chart that shows the T.I. forecast for the conditions.

Other Links You May Find Useful:

  • AirNav:Airport Information If you are going cross country this is a useful link for extensive airport data.
  • Buffalo Flight Service Station The Flight Service Stations are building an extensive web site presence that provides much of the data you have been able to retrieve via telephone.
Return to the FLSC homepage.