* Site of choice

This is actually quite an advanced site that allows you to model what the weather will be like - up to several weeks in advance!!!!

This is a great site, but requires a bit of research to interpret the results properly. There is a huge range of different graphs and tools at your disposal. I usually only use the 'GFS Sounding', but there are many more...........

Here is a VERY basic guide to the 'GFS Sounding':

• Input the coordinates 37.1 lattitude and -3.5 longitude (see screenshot)
• Select 'SOUNDING' -> 'GFS model, (0-180h, 6 hrly, Global) (see screenshot)
• Input the date and time for the forcast, enter the code (see screenshot)
• see screenshot of the resulting sounding curve

OK. There are plenty of places to find out how to read these curves on the net. It wouldn't be appropriate on this site, but here are a couple of tips to allow you to at least figure out the wind direction and speed:

The numbers starting at 1050 and decreasing (at the left of the graph) is pressure. 900=about 1000m, 800=about 2000m, 700=anout 3000m

The numbers on the far right hand side with little sticks beside them show wind direction and intensity (in knots - double it to give kph).

If the red line and the green line are very close = NOT GOOD.

Here is a graph of a bad day - WHY ? Firstly, it's howling windy - we have 10 knots at Cenes take-off level. Secondly, we have a thick layer of high cloud between 7000 and 8000m.

Here is a graph of an okay day - WHY? The wind is from the west, about 5 knots at Cenes take-off level. The day should start cloudless (the green and red line are well separated). The thermal quality looks OK (for September) - for anything else, you're going to have to research a bit on internet, but it's not that hard and extremely useful.

This is the page of the national weather institute. I consider is almost completely rubbish, but have included it as it is the official site. It is only available in Spanish, so if you 'no entiendes' then don't bother. It is not too bad if you want to look at the provincial forcast for today and tomorrow. You can find this here.

This is the page of the European Centre for Medium range Weather Forcasts. They have a huge range of products. One of the most useful is the animated charts of European surface pressure.

The British met-office. It is has a useful collection of the latest satellite images