Poster: A snowHead
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I know it's the best site of its type but has anyone else noticed the discrepancy between, for example, a forecast for a Wenesday given on Monday and those given on the Tuesday and Wednesday i.e on Monday they will say something like "Wednesday - disaster movie proportions of snow", by Tuesday this will be downgraded to "Tomorrow - heavy snowfall" and by Wednesday they'll be promising "Today - clear skies".
Is it that the data they receive is duff or does their analysis always put the best spin on things? Yes, I know weather forecasting isn't an exact science but a lot of their predictions are wildly inaccurate. Lord knows what the 6 day, paid for, forecasts are like.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes ben wright, I've wondered about that too.
And then the ski club, which claims to be taken from snow-forecast.com often bears little relation to what you see on snow-forecast.
I just pick the site predicting the most snow and happily delude myself with that.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Perhaps someone could do a comparison of snowforecast.com predictions with the most respected national forecasting bodies of, say, France and Switzerland. Perhaps sample a few periods of stormy weather during the season?
Anyone interested? (In suggesting this I'm not wearing any sort of editor's 'hat' BTW!)
This could make a really interesting study for snowHeads, and maybe help us identify other good alternative forecasting organisations around the Alps.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've always found the snow-forecast.com reports to be highly random. A combination of local reports and any webcam views you can get tend to be more helpful. HOWEVER, they are happy to provide you with some nice stickers if you send them a postage paid envelope and I like their new logo
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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David Goldsmith, interesting idea, I'll try and make a habit of mentioning if they were accurate in the "Snow reports"
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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maybe they should work out the cloud base and measure from there
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I'll try to do a comparison this season for my resort and let you guys know.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I don't think Snow-forecast.com are any use at all, I'd always use Metteo France for local forecasts, really that's all I'm interested in.
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In defence of snowforecast.com I found them remarkably accurate for a trip to Val d'Isere a few years back. Let's face it, the only way to fairly sort this out is, as I say, to sample a few dates in the winter and compare their accuracy with other sources.
Do Meteo France forecast snowfalls in centimetres, in a comparable format to snowforecast.com?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Snowguess.com is wholly inaccurate at best.
I spent many hours last season comparing 6 day 4casts with the 6th day reality for La Plagne, La Clusaz and Cham. 4casts and snow depth changed wildly in the space of 12 hours.
When in resort I studied the 4cast relative to the actual.
Where 10 cm's were 4cast in the morning clear skies were to be seen. Conversely where clear blues were 4cast we had low cloud and sleet at 2000m.
This was not alway the case but was bad enough to convince me not to subscribe this season.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Right... shouldn't you have been skiing or boarding instead??
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Just to let you know ... Snow-forecast have a free day today, so for 24 hours you can access 6 days of guesswork as opposed to the usual 3.
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You know it makes sense.
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I've found snow-forecast to be as reliable as any of the other services in the past.
On the other site last year, we had a professional metereologist who was posting there. The gist of what he said, was that basically the further away the forecast, the greater the chance of innacuracy, and that a six day forecast would always be wrong more often than it was right. That is why as the day gets closer, the prediction gets revised.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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............and that's exactly why it's not worth paying for the 6 day service when the 3 day one you can get for free!
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Poster: A snowHead
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6 day forecasts are useless. I think it would be in snow-forecast.com interest to put a confidence figure with the forecast. ie tomorrow 80% accuracy etc.... In that way you can balance your decision vs the confidance of the wether forecast
However what I have noticed is that the trend of the freezing levels is more accurate.
BTW I use www.weatheronline.co.uk a lot. I find the maps very useful. You can see the percipitation for Europe which should give an idea of the chances of snow.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Whats the point for most of us anyway as we have to book holidays in advance. I think it is better not to know once you have booked something as it can lead to hours of needless worry!
Has there been a poll already on how far in advance snowheads book their holidays (or at least there last holiday)?
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