Diving next week in Pensacola... in bad Weather?

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JPENDERGRAST

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Memphis, TN
# of dives
100 - 199
This is a question for all the SB peeps down in the panhandle... I'll be down there in Gulf Breeze next week to do some diving / spear fishing, but the weather reports for Wednesday thru Saturday are looking pretty rouugh.. So my question is:

1. How accurate are weather reports for y'alls area - in your own opinion?

2. How bad does a storm have to be for the dive charter have to be in order to cancel?

I haven't booked a charter yet, but was looking to do so tomorrow or Saturday until I saw this. Any / all input would be greatly appreciated.
 
Usually I don't trust the reports when they are more than 2 days out. Since today is Thursday and I was hoping to dive Saturday, I know my chances are slim with a bad weather report now. Honestly, I wouldn't pay much attention to the stuff for next week yet. Also, check out the NOAA reports and buoys - they seem to be a better indication.
 
Wunderground for Gulf Breeze/Navarre is very accurate. Forget the local news stations (3 in Mobile 1 in Pensacola).

Not sure about the charters.
 
so far, the charters I've communicated with claim to go out in 3ft seas or less....I'm sure there are exceptions to this. I'm like the two guys above, I find it hard to listen to local TV forecasts and don't pay much attention to anything more than a couple of days out. Looks like the wind starts laying down Sunday afternoon though...this time of year there is most always an afternoon thunderstorm somewhere local...
 
I just looked on www.accuweather.com (zip for p-cola is 32526 and Gulf Breeze is 32561) and checked out next weeks forecast and it really doesn't look bad, here is why. Here in the panhandle we get afternoon rains typically several times a week throughout the summer. So many times you will see rain forecasted every evening throughout the summer. Even on days with afternoon storms they typically don't come in until 3:00 to 4:00 pm, so you have time to get in some great dives in that time. This is because many times the storms form close to shore and than move inland. Even on our forecasted rainy evenings, trust me when I say that the weather man is found to be a liar down here more than they guess it right. I have had some of the best dives ever down here on days that were suppose to be rainy and I came home with a sunburn.

When I looked at the day time forecasts there were days with mostly sunny or partly cloudy starts to the day. Hopefully these will give you opportunities to dive, and remember the forecasted rain may truely just be the weatherman hedging his bets of being right. I typically don't trust the weather reports until they are about two days out. There has been too many times when they have forecasted rain 5 to 7 days out only to change it to sunny two days before. Here are two links that will show constantly updated info on what the buoys are showing, hope this helps:

NDBC - Station 42040

NDBC - Station 42039
 
Depending on the boat size 3' seas is not all that bad. I would not say perfect but not the worse either. The time intervals is as important some times as the height. tight 3' is worse than xxxx sec waves.
 
Depending on the boat size 3' seas is not all that bad. I would not say perfect but not the worse either. The time intervals is as important some times as the height. tight 3' is worse than xxxx sec waves.

But you also have to consider getting back into the boat while wearing dive gear, and the ability of the folks on your boat (and others) to see a diver in the water amongst the waves. Climbing on to some boats in 3ft seas is like hanging on to the back of a tilt-a-whirl with a drunk St. Bernard strapped to your back. Others not so bad. Depends on the boat, ladder, wave frequency, etc.

I'd think 3ft would be the worst you would want to make a dive in, but that also depends on the experience of the diver and his/her comfort and confidence in those conditions.

I'll second the other posts re: 2 days being the longest you should look out on forecasts. Also, you will find mornings (generally) to be calmer, with wind and waves increasing as the day progresses.
 
Thanks everyone! I feel a little better now.. I've been looking forward to this trip for three months.. Let's all just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't skunk us out.. This will be my brother's first spear trip in the Gulf, and he's really looking forward to it..
 

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