Years ago, a weather briefing meant dropping into a Flight Service Station or calling a toll-free number to get a rundown on the aviation forecast. While you still have the option to get a briefing by phone, and it certainly leaves that all-important paper trail, the information age means that you can enrich your briefing with all of the same tools that weather briefers have and actually see the problems you’ll be dealing with. And with mobile apps, there’s a clear convenience factor.
Some of the popular apps include ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, AeroWeather, WeatherSpork, and Windy. There are also good charts on AviationWeather.gov, an underrated resource but a solid one; in fact I have their surface chart open every day in one of my browser tabs. We covered some of AviationWeather.gov in the December 2023 issue of IFR.
