richard wrote:
I have a brass "Airguide" barometer which I just started to get into.
Can anyone tell me what I should be looking for in terms of predicting
weather especially in terms of boating. Do people use them on their
boats at this point? Any good books on boat related weather prediction?
I have a 25ft powerboat in the New England area.

hi richard,

i asked these same questions a few weeks ago and got a few responses,
just look for the title "measuring wind and weather" and there are some
posts. i finally went out and got a few books to read on the subject
and that has helped me to learn a lot including how to read a weather
report (i'm learning), using a barometer, etc. another thing i found
helpful was just to start watching the barometer. i went to walmart
and got a cheap (30$us'ish) electronic weather station that has a
barometer in it that tracks the last 12 hours of pressure with a graph.
i put that next to the computer (it's reading 1015mb if anyone is
curious!). using that it's to see what the trend in pressure is, if
it's tending down, or up, or staying the same. just watching that and
watching the weather maps and clouds outside has really helped me.
here are some book ideas ...

"understanding weather & climate, 3rd edition" - edward aguado & james
e. burt.
isbn 0-13-101582-6
this book is just a basic university 101 level meteorology book, other
college textbooks would be just as good i'm sure. pretty, goes over
the basics.

"field guide to north american weather" - national audubon society.
isbn 0-679-40851-7
useful book i got at a local bookstore, has great pictures in it of
clouds and descriptions of what those clouds mean in terms of
predicting weather. lots of basic information about weather in clear &
concise format. the cloud pictures are the most useful thing, kind of
a cloud identification guide.

i hope a lot of people give you good responses, i'm learning this too!