WeatherTAP.com Opinions & Thoughts

[Christopher Madairy]

Good day everyone. Sorry to hammering away with all of these questions.

Opinion & Thoughs???

http://www.weathertap.com/unprotected/stat...ices_about.html


Thanks & 73 to all.

Christohper, N3QXX

 

[Tony Laubach]

I like Weathertap, but I use it more at home when I'm not in the field. Especially for nowcasting for others. However, this season, I've invested in GPS to go along with Digital Atmosphere and other gadgets, so I'm not sure whether I'll reinstate my WXTap membership or not. However, for a decently priced internet data source, this actually isn't too bad. I'd give it a go for less than $10/month and play with it to see how you like it! No contracts make it that much nicer, too!

-Tony

 

[Robert Dewey]

My opinion is that it is probably just as good as any other source... Not much you can say about the data itself though, since it is available for free via almost any source, like RAP/UCAR, COD, and of course the NWS. I subsribed to WeatherTAP quite awhile ago, and I am sure alot has changed since then, perhaps there are some other members who are current subscribers? I doubt you could go wrong though, it's only ~$6/month.

Personally, I think they should startup with Level II images as well, as the resolution is MUCH better than standard Level III.

 

[Ben Cotton]

For me, the biggest advantage to a wxtap subscription is the Radar Lab tool (though it definitely has some flaws). Now that the Gibson Ridge software is out there, I think that's a better deal.


Ben

 

[Ben Prusia]

I agree that WeatherTap is a very good tool for radar images and items like that, but I feel that a third party radar tool with no subscription fees will do you much better than WeatherTap. I did use WeatherTap for the first time in the 2004 storm chasing season during the Russell, KS event, it did perform very well, but I believe that with a third party radar tool, it can perform faster than WeatherTap for radar images as you download a picture from WeatherTap, rather than just downloading the raw data and having a program convert it into a radar image.

 

[George Tincher]

WeatherTap was a great thing when it started. At least as far as the RadarLab goes. But with the release of StormLab, GR Level 3 and Digital Atmosphere, it has become obsolete IMHO.

WeatherTap can still be a decent value if you only wanna purchase a subscription for a couple of months per year. But a 1 year subscription of WeatherTap costs virtually the same as buying the GR Level 3 software, which requires no subscription. Plus, GR Level 3 offers much better quality images and tons more features.

Again, IMHO, it's not even a contest. GR Level 3 is miles ahead of WeatherTap and an overall better value in the end. If WeatherTap is to remain somewhat competitive, it needs to modernize and offer something similar to SL, GR or DA.

 

[B Ozanne]

We use it at the Mount Washington Observatory.

 

[George Flickinger]

weathertap

I have a weathertap.com subscription, and the advantage is provides to me is the radar data is always fast to download. During heavy weather usage times, the free gvmt sites tend to bog down, but weathertap keeps me going. Also, the new lightning products are improved....GF

 

[Heath Schroeder]

GRLevel 3

I personally use GRLevel3 at home and at work. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using StormLab and GRLevel3. One benefit of GR3 is street level mapping. That is what made me decide to go with GR3.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

Re: GRLevel 3

Originally posted by Heath Schroeder
I personally use GRLevel3 at home and at work. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using StormLab and GRLevel3. One benefit of GR3 is street level mapping. That is what made me decide to go with GR3.

where do u get a download for the street level mapping? ive been trying to find it

 

[beaudodson]

Re: GRLevel 3

I personally use GRLevel3 at home and at work. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using StormLab and GRLevel3. One benefit of GR3 is street level mapping. That is what made me decide to go with GR3.

where do u get a download for the street level mapping? ive been trying to find it

Street Level Mapping
http://webpages.charter.net/mikedeason/mik...eason/tutorial/

and

http://www.grlevelx.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=704

That should help you out.

 

[Steve Miller]

I've noted too that under "severe" the folks at WeatherTap are now providing a little more in the way of charts and, most useful to me, a list of all NWS offices with state weather round-ups, special weather statements and AFD's.
I realize I can browse to each NWS site and find this info as well as radar and, in some cases, sat images for free but until NWS offices have identical sites and are easier to browse, I will be more than happy to use the list and image services at WeatherTap.

George is right - the lightning products are a lot better than last year.

 

[Nick Benson]

Gibson Ridge is great (I bought a copy), but, I can't *easily* run it on my laptop (an iBook w/ OS X) or my system at work (a Linux machine), so I'm still holding on to my WeatherTap account, which works on any platform. I also like the regional and state radar composites. It's always fast, there aren't any ads, and it's darn cheap ($7 / month).

 

[Mike Umscheid]

WxTAP continues to be an asset for me out in the field. I will not invest in the WxWorx system because personally, I doubt I can improve my success ratio. Storm chasing is about challenge of the entire process, and I only like looking at radar when it's painfully obvious to me that I need a source outside my own two eyes for decision making. If I begin to rely on always-on radar while chasing, then I'm defeating the real purpose for me to be out there. I can look at radar at home.

With that said, WxTAP is fast, the .gif files are small, and my antique analog connection with Ositech modem is good enuf to get a download of "the big picture" in 30s or less.

Last year, I began using StormLab... which is excellent and fast as well. I've had some problems, however, connecting to NWS servers to download the data with such a slow analog cell phone transfer rate at times, and with my setup, is not quite as reliable as WxTAP, but whenever I get a cell phone upgrade, that may change.

"old school" Mike U

 

[Jay Cazel]

I have used WeatherTap now for 5 years in the field and at home...it is a great tool. I also use Swift and Storm Lab, (Also this year I got WxWorks)they all have good and bad things about them. One thing I do like about Weather Tap is if you are at school or someplace that has a computer you can pull up Weather Tap on the web log in and see what is going on without having your own laptop or pc handy. As Mike U said, fast servers and so far I have never seen WeatherTap servers go down for really any lenght of time. Plus 7 bucks a month for what you get....not a bad deal IMO.