In any wind sport you need to know not only what the wind is doing but what it is going to do if you are to make the most of your time and be safe whilst you are practicing. The weather can change in a matter of seconds and it's not unusual for the wind to ratchet up by a considerable amount literally in the blink of an eye. Be prepared, check the wind forecast every time before you go out and you'll have a bit more knowledge about what the weather could be throwing your way.
Where to check the wind forecast
At this point I'm not going to go into too much detail about interpreting actual weather maps and synoptic charts. Predicting the wind is certainly possible from these maps and will often give you a much bigger picture of what's going on in the surrounding area however synoptic charts take a little bit of skill to interpret correctly and there are currently several websites that take this data and turn it into a format which is easy to read and very useful for us as kitesurfers. These websites are typically easier to interpret and while not incredibly accurate on a micro level can (when combined with a bit of local knowledge) give you a good idea of whats likely to happen for the next few days.
The 2 main websites we're going to look at for wind forecast information are windguru.cz and windfinder.com as these provide (more or less) global coverage and can be updated with custom spots if needed.
Windguru
Here's a screen shot from windguru showing a fairly typical week in Tarifa.
As you can see its pretty self explanatory. The wind forecast is given in the 3 rows marked, wind speed, gust speed and modified wind speed. One thing to notice is the modified wind speed row. Not all forecast locations have this row. This is added here because wind in Tarifa is subject to topographical modifications (the venturi effect, see next lesson) for the moment it suffices to know that the wind speed is subject to modification due to the layout of the surrounding land. These modified wind speeds are often created by the users and will be present in any location where the predicted wind speed as given by windguru is consistently wrong due to local effects.
Another thing to notice here is the gust speed. If the gust speed is significantly more than the wind speed this can lead to dangerous conditions where the kite is bucking all over the place. We talk more about gusty winds later in the course for the moment just be aware of the fact that these sites will give you a gust reading.
On the windguru website, there are 2 other forecasts under this initial forecast (not shown here), all 3 forecasts simply use different models or different range forecasts and will often be subtly different from each other. Use all 3 combined to build up a big picture.
To reach the forecast page for any particular spot simply choose your continent, country and spot from windguru's home page. If you don't see your local spot listed, get in touch with the guys at windguru and they'll be only too happy to add it for you.
Windfinder
Screen shot of the same week shown in windfinder.
You can see that Windfinder offers pretty much the same information but in a slightly different format. The choice between the two sites is mainly one of aesthetics. Some people find windguru easier to understand and others prefer windfinder. In terms of which is more accurate it seems that it varies day by day and spot by spot, bear in mind that both of these sites use the same data but simply interpret it slightly differently. My advise would be to try both and use all the data you can until you start to see patterns building for your local spot.
Once you're happy with interpreting the data and applying you're own knowledge of the weather at your local spot you're ready to become a true wind spotter and start boring everyone around you with your constant harping on about the wind and what its going to do...remember non kitesurfers generally don't care if its going to be a force 3 or 5 today!!
Note: both these sites now have apps for iPhone and Android so you can have this handy information with you where ever you go.