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I'm looking for some help gauging Lake 'O conditions. I'm familiar with th e Finger Lakes however we are moving to Sodus this year.

What is the best tool or media outlet to determine lake conditions?

What are the "rule of thumbs" for the wind vs. wave size?

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I'm looking for some help gauging Lake 'O conditions. I'm familiar with th e Finger Lakes however we are moving to Sodus this year.

What is the best tool or media outlet to determine lake conditions?

What are the "rule of thumbs" for the wind vs. wave size?

rules of thumb depend on your boat size but in general south wind you can take higher speeds than north or east

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I've read the rule of thumb is roughly 1 foot for each 5 mph of wind. Can't tell you how often I've read 1 to 3 foot waves and found 3 to 5 instead. If you pay to join this site, you'll get most of this stuff on listed on the left of your screen:

Coastwatch surface temps: http://www.coastwatch.msu.edu/ontario/

NOAA maps (downloadable .gpx): http://marine.geogarage.com/routes

NOAA maps (ordering): http://www.oceangrafix.com/o.g/Charts/G ... harts.html

Sailflow wind forecasts: http://www.sailflow.com/windandwhere.iw ... meoffset=0

NOAA wind forecasts: http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glc ... pe=N&hr=-1

Weather: http://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:14551.1.99999

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My favorite tool while driving is the National Dial a Bouy at 1-888-701-8892 and enter bouy 45012. That location is slightly northeast of Rochester and it will give you all the wave data within about 50 minutes ago.

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Sail flow (mentioned above) is great. They have an app for the iPhone called Wind Alert that lets you search for weather stations and view the current wind conditions and the predicted wind for the next few days. It is at least as accurate as NOAA.

[ Post made via iPhone ] iPhone.png

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I generally use the NOAA site. Most of the time if it is out of the S, SW, SE your golden. Out of the N, NE, and NW your not going on the lake anytime soon. Out of the E, or W all is determined on the wind speed anything over 15mph is usually on the rough side (depending on the boat.) I like using www.intellicast.com and just punch in sodus point NY and it comes up with the forecast for the bay.

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viewtopic.php?f=14&t=31201#p183353 <--------------------This is one of the best explanations I have heard about the lake yet. We were there today, took the day off as a matter of fact. Weather called for wind out of the east changing to south at 6-10mph waves 1 foot or less and when we left the wind was blowing a steady 10 - 15 out of the NE and waves were 3 to 4 building to 5 ft. at 12:30 when we left :o

Tom

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