Is there an Astronomical Weather App??

[Padawan]

I'll admit to being a bit dejected , have "stayed up" till midnight in expectation of a good viewing , with my newly bought kit.......

Disappointed again !

So my question relates to weather apps ..... Loads around but are daytime , sun & rain biased for obvious reasons

Does anyone know ...Is there an app out there that will forecast the nightly chances of a clar sky ???

Or do you just look up at 10-ish and hazard a guess

Padawan

[Owmuchonomy]

http://clearoutside.com/forecast/54.14/-1.53

Link (mine is set to Ripon but you can alter that) above kindly provided by the SGL sponsors, FLO

[Tums]

+1 for Clearoutside from those lovely people at FLO

Also have a look at 'Scope Nights' only on iOS though.

[Pete Presland]

I use many including the one suggested above all are reasonably accurate on a national level, but with the weather you actually experience being so local to your area it difficult.

Another couple.

http://www.sat24.com/en/gb

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/

http://www.accuweather.com/en/gb/biggleswade/sg18-8/hourly-weather-forecast/326922

[colin2007]

I

http://clearoutside.com/forecast/54.14/-1.53

Link (mine is set to Ripon but you can alter that) above kindly provided by the SGL sponsors, FLO

Thanks for that. I have taken a look and at the moment it says clear skies, but when I look outside it is quite cloudy!

But most weather forecasters are predicting a cloudless night so we will have to wait and see.

I hope it does clear because I`m in the mood to go outside and do some stargazing for a little while

[Padawan]

Excellent. Exactly what I was after.

I'll work my way through them....it's not like I can much with my telescope currently anyway!

Thanks again

[ronin]

Weather forecasts are I suspect not really geared to vertically upwards.

Sat24 is probably the best as it shows the cloud over the UK from above.

However it is not a forecast but the latest imagery, forecastihg would have to be from yourself.

This arises a few times and the sort of problem is what do we define as clear and what is clear in general weather terms. I do suspect that "clear" is not "cloudless". The other factor is that weather is for an area, such as East Anglia, not necessarily Cambridge, or Norwich, or Ipswich or Kings Lynn all of which may be different even if slightly. I bet Leeds, Harrogate, Weatherby, Bradford and Huddersfield can have different conditions.

[Paul M]

These apps can be fun and most of them include other interesting info too but, and I know I sound like a broken record on this, they don't generally have any "skill". It's just interpolated model output and as such you can be absolutely certain that it will be either right or wrong in forecasting an astronomically clear sky over your back yard. The probability of success on any particular night will be dependent on the current weather type.

Meteorology and astronomy are two aspects of the same gig for me. I've always had a keen interest in both. My belief is that it pays to learn a bit about how the weather works and apply that knowledge along with your own local knowledge to the BBC/MetO national forecasts.

The short bulletins at the end of the tea time news are pretty useless but the longer bulletins such as the Weather For the Week Ahead slot that the BBC broadcast later in the evenings is very good. 

We all like to have a go at the weather men. For sure, they aren't like they used to be. Selected for presentation skill rather than forecasting skill. They get briefed on the major part of their forecasts by a senior forecaster. But having said that, given the Great British weather, they do a very good job.

Being specialists ourselves, we can't expect them to understand or cater for our niche. We have to do some of the work too!

[davedownsouth]

Scope nights is the only one I trust

[knobby]

Not an Appointment but

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/seeing/stondon-massey_united-kingdom_7293502 is pretty useful