The following courses break down exactly how to forecast for paragliding with the crucial elements every pilot should be showing up to the hill with.

We show you the exact websites and break things down to a checklist.

If you are not a Desert Wind Student and would like to take these courses in person or online just click the link on the bottom of the page and we will set up a day and time.

At some point we need to have a simplified breakdown of meteorology so we know what we need to know and what we don’t as we begin and are on the journey of paragliding weather forecasting. That’s what we did. We broke it down to a checklist so you know exactly how to fill in the boxes of data you absilutuely need to know how to stay safe and where to go to get them.

Weather forecasting for the aviation based adventure sport of paragliding is a vital skill in keeping the sport fun.

Learning how to relate your skill level to the weather is essential to your safety. Desert Wind Pilots (Dust Devils) know how to forecast weather and help other pilots get better at it. With todays technology, it’s amazing how well we can forecast by looking around us a bit deeper and having the right coach.

Course 1 - The Bigger Picture

Reading the NOAA synopsis on a daily basis is by far the best thing you can start doing to get your knowledge base built. Click on the terms you don’t know, it defines them! This is the beginning foundation needed to not just know what the weather is going to do, but “why” it’s going to do it. It really helps to have a weather coach guide you through what’s best to know and study to get you learning specifically what’s needed for paragliding efficiently. The weather going on way up there matters to your flying.

Course 2 - The sky we fly

Getting into how that bigger picture is effecting the part of the atmosphere we’ll be flying in is as interesting as it is crucial to staying safe, getting up and flying better. Upper winds aloft, thermal potential, conversions, inversions, cloud streets, lift index’s and the stuff that teaches us in more detail if it will be the weather we need to plan our flyig trips AND what type of flying it will be. THAT is how we determine if it’s going to be in the window of our skill level or a day where we will go and help other pilots or go for a hike.

Course 3 - Micro weather - Locals only

Local knowledge is a key component to understanding weather on the level you need to launch, fly and land. From mountain flying to high desert to tropical conditions we need to know the same elements, it’s just different data AND different local conditions. There’s only so much the larger synoptic forecast models can tell us. We have to add in the local conditions and local knowledge in order to really know what’s going to happen. This is SO crucial and a really fun aspect to get into. How AND why winds are wrapping around the launch, why the wind cycles are what they are, what time things are going to change.

Click on the contact link and let me know you want to do the weather course. It’s the most simplified way to get the exact elements you need to know before you go.