Wunder vs swift wx vs NOAA vs GRlevel3

[David Williams]

So, this season will be the first season that I chase with mobile internet (probably going to go with Verizon month-to-month). And I am trying to pan out what products I will use during the chase. I see ST members discussing the benefits of GRlevel3 all the time and once in a while I here someone mention swift wx. But I'm wondering about using Weather underground and NOAA during a chase. Basically, can you give the pros and cons of what you use and why?

 

[Danny Neal]

WUnderground and the NWS are basic radar presentations IMO. The give you a very basic interpretation of what is going on and is a great tool if you aren't real confident with radar. I can't speak for SWIFT WX since I have never used it, but I would guess it is the same as GR3. I use GR3 and StormLab for my radars of choice. As they give me a closer more in depth look at a storm. I think the absolute cream of the crop is GR2AE. If I want a quick look at the radar on my phone or something I usually just type in LOT's URL for a quick glance. It's based on your funds and experince level using radar. All basically work in the same way, but GR3/Swift/StormLab you get a more in depth look.

 

[Andrew Herron]

Danny, Wund can actually get pretty good if you know how to use it. I can zoom in way easier than I can in GRL3 even. They also support storm tracks, including TVS and Hail, county warning overlays, and up to 40 frames (unlike GRL's 20) if you pay the yearly $10.

They also have a Google Maps based viewer that's pretty sweet in its own rite.

David, if you have any questions about what's available on Wund and how to use it, just let me know.

 

[Chris Kennedy]

your forgetting weathertap.com

 

[Terry Tyler]

I have used alot of the different radar options out there and ill give you my opinion about it.

You want to stay away from using internet radar if your doing any kind of serious storm chasing. Internet radar is garbage but if you had no other choice, i would reccomend wundergrounds radar. It allows you to zoom in pretty close and use alot of the other nexrad products that NWS or intellicast dont let you. You arent able to zoom into street-to-street level or integrate GPS with a web based radar. Having that ability is extremely critical when your chasing storms.

I highly reccomend investing in a program that is designed for viewing radar. Personally, i use the gibson ridge software, but i hear that barons products are really really nice. Problem is, the whole set-up can go upwards of $700. That was a bit too far out of my price range. I have used weatherlab HD, and i really liked the look of it. It was a beautiful radar, but it uses java and draws an incredible amount of resources and bandwidth. Every time you zoom in, or pan, or anything. It has to load all the street layers again, warning layers again, and all that other stuff again. That can take up to 5-10 mins on this machine assuming it doesnt lock up and not respond. In that case i have to close it, and load it all over again.

Really, its all about what you want to use it for or your like danny said, your experience level using the radar. I really want to move up to level 2 here pretty soon. Im using level 3, but the level 2 has higher resolution and alot more products then level 3. Youll have to get a feed from allison house or somewhere else to use it though. Pretty much, Dave. If your going out chasing, dont want to go out of pocket, and want a professional-grade radar viewer, id reccomend the level3. You can customize it however you want to and load up shapefiles to go street to street. You can also integrate GPS with it, and let me tell you buddy. Its down to the tee as far as accuracy. In addition to all this, its really freindly on your bandwidth. I can keep it running on 1X with about %50 signal strength. It will also display live polygonal warnings and warning texts which is extremely valuable. With all that said, there could be better stuff out there. I havent used the mobile threat net but from what ive seen of it, it looks really clean. Im sure others will chime in and let you know how they feel.

 

[Danny Neal]

Danny, Wund can actually get pretty good if you know how to use it. I can zoom in way easier than I can in GRL3 even. They also support storm tracks, including TVS and Hail, county warning overlays, and up to 40 frames (unlike GRL's 20) if you pay the yearly $10.

They also have a Google Maps based viewer that's pretty sweet in its own rite.

David, if you have any questions about what's available on Wund and how to use it, just let me know.

Hmmm looks interesting actually. I haven't used it in ages as I have been using GR3 (if I paid for it why wouldn't I lol) WUnderground does indeed look to be a good tool if you have a tight budget as well.

 

[Dean Baron]

I have used Swift and GRlevel3. Although I was never an owner of Swift I did try out their free trial back in 2006 and in those 7 days I never figured out how to use it. It looks like a great tool, but atleast for me there was a huge learning curve to it that I never figured out. I am an owner of GRlevel3 and I love it. Once you get comfortable with the basic edition you can start adding placefiles and shapefiles to make it an even better tool. My vote is for GR over swift, easier to use and cheaper (I think Swift is now a subscription instead of a one time payment which is one more reason for me not to use it, even though they are Minnesota based). NOAA is alright, but Swift or GR both beat it hands down.

 

[david diehl]

I have used both Swift, and GR level 3, I perfer GR due to the cost, plus ease of operation.
Swift I had trouble loading data from, but GR level 3 I have not had that problem. that is all I can think of at this time

 

[MClarkson]

Not wanting to pay anything, wunderground has become my radar site of choice lately. You get your different tilts, velocities, etc. You can zoom in fairly well(i only wish it would display more roads). It is timely and the image automatically updates after a time.

 

[Chris Lott]

Not wanting to pay anything, wunderground has become my radar site of choice lately. You get your different tilts, velocities, etc. You can zoom in fairly well(i only wish it would display more roads). It is timely and the image automatically updates after a time.

Wunderground is pretty good. They now have the smoothing function which I like. I haven't purchased a laptop yet, but when I do I will be going with GRLevel 3. I downloaded the trial last spring and it's just too good to pass up for the price.

 

[Jerry Prsha]

So, this season will be the first season that I chase with mobile internet (probably going to go with Verizon month-to-month). And I am trying to pan out what products I will use during the chase. I see ST members discussing the benefits of GRlevel3 all the time and once in a while I here someone mention swift wx. But I'm wondering about using Weather underground and NOAA during a chase. Basically, can you give the pros and cons of what you use and why?

I chase with SwiftWX and WeatherTap. Works out great for me...

 

[Paul Austin]

As far as internet sources go, Wunderground is hands-down the best for radar products. Just go to the NexRad section and choose a site from the map. Even the experimental high-res sites are listed. Upon loading, options are listed along the top to include watch/warning overlays, radar animation, total precip, and regional view. For the rest of the nexrad products, an advanced options pane is included along the left side. Click this to gain access to 4 base reflectivity tilts, 2 base radial tilts, 4 storm relative velocity tilts, storm total, 1 hr running total, vertical integrated liquid, echo tops, and velocity azimuth display. Along the bottom are options to save the single or animated gif image (though no control over number of frames is included). Zooming and panning is as easy as clicking and dragging a box. Updates are the approximate 5 min. intervals and are timely and automatic. And in my opinion, velocity couplets are much easier to spot and track with the wunderground SRM product than with GR's red/green display (broader color spectrum). Actually, why is the red/green combination so prevalent, considering the commonality of red-green colorblindness - a question for another thread, I suppose. I've only looked at the google-integrated radar products (Wundermap) a few times because of the absence of velocity imagery, but it provides all the google overlays (map, satellite, hybrid, terrain) with options to display base radar, station surface obs, watches/warnings, webcams, satellite, USGS river data, RUC/NAM/GFS model data (yes I was shocked when first discovering this in a "user friendly interface" type product), hurricane-related info, fire weather data, tornado reports, and NDFD forecast all as overlays. Yes, I'm well aquainted with wunderground, as I've used it in a pinch many times. And for an internet product, I've been extremely impressed with the sophistication, completeness, and accuracy of the site. It blows away most every other internet radar site (And I've used them all: Accuweather, Intellicast, NWS, etc.). Now for non-radar data, SPC offers a host of important info, and the ADDS site is awesome for real-time sfc, regional radar, and sat imagery.

Cons for wunderground are that lesser but important roads/terrain/towns are scarce or missing at times depending on zoom level. GPS integration is non-existent. Customization is limited. The loading of pages includes all the page links and ads, so it can sometimes be a little slow with initial loading, but it does load radar updates automatically, even when animating. And archiving is nearly impossible.

I would probably go with GR3 for cost-to-benefit ratio. Being able to archive and load archived imagery, plot your location in real-time relative to the storm, place files/shape files customization, etc. (things already mentioned) would be the selling points. GR2 and GR2AE are wonderful, but for chasing, bandwidth can become a problem, and AE is expensive. I can't say much about swift-wx, as my experience is very limited.

My 2 cents. Happy choosing!

 

[David Williams]

Thank you everyone for your thorough responses. Since I am new to chasing with technology, it will have to be a trial and error game. But, I think I will go with GR3 and Wunder for this chase season. I do like the idea of a one time payment instead of monthly fees.

 

[JimMartin35]

I have GRLevel3, and it has proven to be very useful for me. The $80 for the program is well worth the purchase. It has helped me when I do weather forecasts in my weather blog on Wunderground.com .