WindOnTheWater.com

WindOnTheWater.com is a mash-up of Google Maps and real-time public wind sensors. This site was created in May 2007 to quickly check if Sauvie Island (Oregon) will blow in the evening for kiting and windsurfing, but other areas have been added. The purpose of this site is to find good real time conditions for wind sports.

Current features:
1) real time wind from many sources including NOAA, mesowest, weather underground, weatherbug, etc.
2) real time pressure gradients
3) webcam links
4) forecast links
5) cell phone pages: http://www.windonthewater.com/cell/
6) On demand text messages (with user account): click here
7) Wind alerts (with user account): click here

(Oregon and Washington have the most functionality at the moment)

Tips on using this website:
Firefox works best, Internet explorer may be a bit slower. If on a slow connection, consider using the cell phone pages.

Not all these sensors are in an ideal location, and may have trees or buildings blocking the wind. With the sensor window open, you can easily zoom in on the map in the satellite view to see the exact location of the sensor. Also, check the sensor notes tab for info.

To refresh the wind sensor data click the wind button. Refreshing the webpage also works, but will take longer as it reloads the map.
There is some latency between new sensor data and appearing on the map. Keeping this latency low is the main goal of this webpage, but to see the very latest data, click on a sensor, then notes, and then link to the source. The most popular regions/sensors will have the lowest latency.

To see historical data, click the wind icon. You can see today/yesterday’s wind graph, with sustained wind in blue and gusts in red. Use the change region button to zoom out completely. Also notice you can see local webcams, pressure gradients, and water temperatures for some regions.

The latest wind data is collected every 5-60 minutes, depending on how often the sensor delivers data. Data comes from many public sources. Click the notes tab to see sensor notes and the source of the data. All wind numbers are shown in MPH, and wind isn’t shown on the icon if the data is older than 3 hours.
Icon color key:
gray = wind < 14mph
green = wind 14-19mph
red = wind 20+ mph

Feel free to use this site for personal use. Accurate real time conditions is the goal of this website, but keep in mind weather data may be inaccurate or delayed for many reasons. Please read the Dislclaimer and Privacy Policy.

Future feature ideas

History – Browse through all wind history (currently only 2 days)

More sensors - Putting in sensors for other regions

Cell phone– Nicer looking and more functionality on cell phone pages, small graphs?