By Steve Ford

When all of the weather folks are talking strong winds in the mountains, it will likely be strong (Monday Jan. 8th and Tuesday Jan 9th were cases in point). And, when the forecast calls for high clouds to move in overnight and stay, it's not likely that there will be enough heating to soar at a  mostly thermal soaring site. Fortunately, there are several places to look up this info on the web - both as primary information sources and to augment what you hear on the news and weather radio.

Here are the web sites we've been using most to get weather info during the 2001 season.
If it's a day trip, we look the night before, and the morning of, a flying day. Based on the info, we pick a place to go. If it's a weekend, or long trip, we look at the data the night before, try to understand the trends and variables, and check with flight services via cell phone (or pay phone) each morning.

Winds ALOFT forecast - NOT surface winds: http://aviationweather.com/BanAV006.html.
Look at the "about winds aloft" section to learn how to read the data, and look at the "winds aloftforecast stations" map to see where the data are forecast for. Look for shears (big increases in speed or dramatic changes in direction). Try to pick a triangle around your sites of interest. For example, Brad always used Denver (DEN), Grand Junction (GJT), and Medicine Bow (MBW) for Williams. GJT is on the western slope and WSW of Williams, DEN is almost due east on the eastern slope, and MBW is on the eastern slope NNE of