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Florida Gardening

which forecast website do you trust?

15 years ago

I am wondering, which forecast website do you go by? I am looking at several and yes, overall they say the same, but like for tonight, one predicts temps so low I need to haul in my orchids, while another predicts just a bit warmer and I would leave the orchids outside.

or always go by the one predicting the lowest temps to be on the safe side? ACK.....

Evelyn

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Comments (10)

solstice98
15 years ago
Evelyn, I go through the same thing. If you want to see current radar, the best is the South Florida Water Management District (www.sfwmd.gov) but I'm still searching for a reliable forecast site. I use weather.com but they always guess too low on temps.

Kate
scents_from_heaven
15 years ago
I utilize the National Weather Service site and click on my state and the area I live in. I then take into consideration my microclimate from past experience and go from there. Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Weather
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I use my local tv station's website, WGRZ Buffalo, and I use weather.com because they say that they get my temperature as close as 1/4 mile from where I live. However, if any of them say 32 degrees, we cover the trees no matter what, just because of microclimate issues and just because anything can happen, temp wise, overnight on a clear night. I really want to stress that blankets are the best way to go for freezes that come along. We use 2 blankets over each tree, and as of today and having dealt with a month of frosts/mostly freezes down as low as to the mid 20's, I have zero foliage damage whatsoever. This is not a brag, this is me sitting here stunned realizing that what I thought was me going overboard in protecting these trees, was not overprotecting at all; it was doing exactly what they needed, having just been planted 1 month ago. So anyone out there, if you are protecting trees 4 feet and under like I am, using tomato cages ($2 a piece) and a couple of fleece blankets over them, will likely protect your plants 100%. They did mine. They're calling for 32 here tonight, and possibly down to mid 20's in certain areas, so we just went out and covered them a little bit ago, before my husband went to work. It's a pain because it takes about 45 minutes to cover all of them, but seeing the leaves bright green and not having any effects whatsoever, has been worth these weeks of aggravation.
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Our contract is fixed price with allowances. Our builders approach is that changes in things like tile or lighting fixtures that don't change the work involved for him, are no issue- we are paying the difference in the cost of material. Obviously, if we make a change that results in more labor, this would be considered a change order to be negotiated as everything else was sorted. As an example, if we change from a simple, tiled backsplash in the kitchen to one that has much more elaborate patterns and an increased time to install, then I'd expect the builder to ask for a change order to cover this. To the OP, sounds like a discussion with the builder would make sense- for some areas, it would seem that a process could be worked out to at least help you understand the relative differences in the choices you're looking at? This could be done in a way to preserve the approach this builder seems to have with his suppliers but give you some information to help with your decisions? Maybe it's time to ask the builder to meet you at the tile store to make some progress?
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At about 5:45 am every day, I go outside in my bathrobe and "check" the weather. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning and I take my umbrella with me when I leave the house at 6:30. Red sky at night, nice sky in the morning, sailor's delight, no umbrella. If it's just a little brisk at 5:45, I wear a sweater or light jacket because it'll warm up by the time I come home and I'll be carrying whatever I've worn. If it's really cold, heavy coat and other gear - yes, I lived in the TC so I also know downright bitter cold. In the winter, I always wear some type of shoe/boot that can withstand snow. In my normal daily routine, as long as I don't get drenched with rain, I don't care too much about what the weather is. I have hairspray at work. If I'm going out of town for some number of days, I google the newspaper of my destination city and check what's going to be happening. Because there's not a darned thing I can do to affect the weather, I don't both too much about it.
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Thanks for those articles from me, too. The CDC still says to use bleach to disinfect, which is different than sanitize. They say that to disinfect hard, non-porous surfaces you need 1/3 cup of regular chlorine bleach per gallons of water, although Clorox recommends using 1/2 cup bleach per 1/2 gallon. For small batches, use 4 teaspoons of regular chlorine bleach and 1 quart of water. Dip a cloth into the mixture, wipe the surface, ALLOWING THE SOLUTION TO CONTACT THE SURFACE FOR 5 MINUTES AND AIR DRY. For food contact surfaces, like countertops and high chair trays, rinse with warm water and air dry after disinfecting. Use it sparingly on stainless steel sinks and surfaces. I use bleach regularly, I have all those white bar mops that I wash and bleach, I use them for everything. I also bleach the white socks and cotton gloves I use/wear on the farm, as well as wash cloths and some white towels. A person should NEVER have white towels on a farm, BTW. Anyway, I use enough that it's never outdated, and I leave it in the original opaque container. The biggest mistake people make, though, is to wipe their counters with the solution but not leave it the required 5 minutes before wiping the residue to dry their surfaces. If you don't do it correctly, it doesn't work correctly. Annie
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abendwolke
Original Author
15 years ago
yes, Weather.com is one of the sites I am checking.... Linda, the one you are using looks good, thanks for the link.
tomkaren
15 years ago
I use Weather Underground. Of course you have to tell it where to forecast. They also give the option of an hourly forecast.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weather Underground
atreelady
15 years ago
I use weather underground. What I like about them is you can use a location that is really close to you. I look at the hourly forecast too. Tonight is supposed to be a couple degrees warmer than last night here. I brought 1 orchid in last night but the other I left out and it is fine. Evelyn, what temp do you bring them in at?
abendwolke
Original Author
15 years ago
uuhh, we have two 'votes' for Weather Underground (also one I bookmarked)....
Judy, I bring my vandas, some taros and my anthuriums in when it goes below 45, and most others at 40. Some I leave outside down to 35....
wanda662
15 years ago
I use the weather under ground, but it was on this computer when I got it.
I have other ones that I check also, like WPTV channel 5 radar.
beth7happy
15 years ago
Weatherunderground gets my vote, too...if you plug in your zip code it brings a local radar, and then, if you scroll down on that page, they also will list private 'weather stations' so you can monitor things REALLY close to you. It's a great site, not only for weather, but also for some really great amateur photography. wunder photos ...
abendwolke
Original Author
15 years ago
Well, looks like you all trust weather underground. Good for me then :)
corrie22
15 years ago
Not me

I used to use WUnderground, until I found a site that
rated all the online weather things.
Which of course, I can't find again not that I'm looking
for it!

Anyway, Weather Underground and Accuweather had very low
accuracy ratings, so did NWS and NOAA - which surprised me.
Ranged for 30% to about 60% accuracy.

The top rated and most accurate was myforecast.com
they had a almost 99% accuracy for our area.

So I use myforecast.com now.

Another one that was way up there in accuracy,
which I would have never thought about
was http://www.usairnet.com/
It's aviation weather, which makes sense, they pretty
much have to be accurate.

I'll try to find that rating site again, it lets you put
in your zip code and gives you the rating for all the online weather stations, and how accurate they have been
for your area.

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