Chili tonight, hot tamale!

48 hours of weather forecast data from the National Weather Service for my location. So many data points, so little time…

Had I not been warned as a youngster to be careful what I wished for, I’d certainly wish to live somewhere with predictable weather. Then, of course, I’d wind up in Seattle or London and curse the non-stop rain and fog!

Since I became an avid road cyclist about 7 years ago, I’ve developed a careful technique for checking the weather forecast. First and foremost, I rely heavily on the weather forecast presentation seen at right. This can be obtained from the National Weather Service for your location, but I can’t seem to find a great link to get you there… I’d say that website usability was suffering from the ongoing effects of sequestration, but that website has sucked for years.

The key to getting the greatest benefit from this particular forecast, available up to 7 days into the future is to check it frequently as the day you’re interested in approaches. For instance, if you’re planning to cycle a century over a known course on Saturday, start checking the site on the Sunday before. Now… Here’s the important part! As soon as you see a forecast for favorable conditions on Saturday, close the site and walk away. Don’t check it again. As long as you’re not looking at the page, it can’t change! That’s the beauty of it! It is important to avoid individuals who might share their reading of other weather pages, or you may be faced with brutal headwinds that shift direction midway through an out and back ride…

You may wonder how this can work on group rides where others have also checked the weather. The answer to this question is delightfully simple. Everyone else on your ride pulled their weather from the Weather! app on their iPhone that hasn’t refreshed since last September. See? It works so well that Apple designed it into the iPhone as a feature!