FAA Soaring Forecasts being eliminated?

You can obtain the Denver Soaring Forecast via the following URL:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/include/...entdir=routine

Having said that, during a seminar this spring of Colorado Soaring Pilots,
it was generally believed that due the impact of the Colorado terrain on the
weather, that the forecast above (same as the recording) was only useful if
you intended to soar in the Denver Class-B airspace.

Some suggested alternatives are Dr Jack's BLIPmaps (well worth the time to
learn and understand and the money to subscribe):

http://www.drjack.info/

Alternatively, you can obtain interactive forecasts Skew-Ts for any location
at the following URL:

http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/

Rolf Hertenstein's Gliding Mentor Series book "Thermals" provides excellent
information on extracting thermal forecasting information from Skew-T
charts. Note that the above Skew-Ts also have forecast winds aloft present
information on wind shear. Dr Jack's BLIPmaps are generated from the same
base input information as the NOAA forecast Skew-Ts.

I have been working with both this year at several locations in Southern
Colorado and have gotten reliable data and good insights into the day's
soaring weather. Dr Jack's wind information are composites of the wind thru
the boundary layer. The NOAA Skew-Ts give you wind information, both
velocity and direction, from the surface to well above the boundary layer.
They should also be useful to determine if conditions are good for potential
Wave.

John Scott

I've found the FAA soaring forecasts almost worse than useless. With a
little understanding, you can download forecasts 100 times better from
the web.

No great loss to me.

Mike