I’ve been using windfinder with a membership here in Idaho, but even where there are weather stations it only updates readings every hour, (despite claims of “live measurements”) and that is now my main complaint, and am starting to revisit the question of “what wind app to use?”. Looked at Windy ( the red/.com one, not the blue/.app) and it looks like it has 15min intervals (without the premium membership), and more weather stations that it tracks, so that seems a bit more promising, although I like the Windfinder interface a bit better…
What are others using, and is there some strategy to get something at least closer to real time/continuous wind readings?
Other than the two you mentioned I also use iKitesurf premium app. Between these three apps I generally find one that is more accurate than the others for any given spot.
The Windy and iKitesurf apps offer multiple forecasting models and id be interested to learn more about the differences in these models and which is more accurate for any given situation. For example, some are better at thermal forecasting than others. Wingman on YouTube did a little tutorial about this but I’d like to get more in depth.
Then there are spots like La Ventana where all the forecasting tools are pretty unreliable and you need to find someone with very site specific knowledge (Mas Viento).
I have resorted to just reading the 2 sentence blurb on paid Ikite each day instead of trying to figure it out myself.
Once you follow a specific spot long enough too you’ll know which model works best for that spot. Lake Piru is one of the places I watched long enough to know that the NAM 3KM model is quite reliable. But then beaches in Malibu and Ventura the paid iKite forecasts are more reliable.
I use the one near to me to gauge DW conditions and it’s very good. So much better than Windfinder (although I use that for predictions even if they are a bit inaccurate sometimes).
There might be something similar where you live so do some digging.
This is great, found a new real time feed. Tiny little island near Newquay which should have accurate readings for local runs! Here is another UK live feed map
@SpokeyDoke your best bet will probably be finding a sailing club and seeing if they have one of these live reading apps setup.
Otherwise a good fallback is Wunderground. They are not all equally good, and you need to spend a bit of time finding a station that has high quality wind readings by spending some time comparing reported to actual. I have one locally that is pretty good
Long and medium range
Look at combination of Surfline analysis, and the windy.app (both paid, both good value imo)
This analysis from Surfline is very useful in communicating the uncertainty about the track of weather systems in the UK, as the exact track changes everything. They also do a daily update which can be pretty accurate. (You just need to invert their advice - Sunday looking EPIC!)
Windy has this view that overlays the models onto a single plot, and indicates variance with the delta symbol. High variance means you can probably wait until they start to agree, and probably also ignore the period following the high variance.
A useful medium range thing to look at are the weather models for the local region as they are usually much better than the international ones, taking into account local features.
Short range
Hopefully Surfline and windy are still in agreement, then check tides and local weather.
On the day, I’ll check UK live feed map 1, and UK observation map 2 (which also has visibility and rain observations which are useful for DW. These also show how weather systems are moving through the UK, and you can see when the wind is starting to build in the West, meaning you may be in luck.
If it’s not looking good, I’ll keep an eye on Wunderground, for live feed, and keep an eye on the surf cams as they are usually the best bet for spotting when the wind has picked up or dropped.
Here is another 
