Case Study: PredictWind achieves #1 accuracy for open-ocean wind speed and direction forecasts with Spire

How PredictWind compared wind observations from weather stations and weather models to create two proprietary weather prediction models

PredictWind, a provider of high-resolution maritime forecasts for the sporting and leisure sailing community, needed the most accurate weather forecast provider to power its maps, routing tools, departure planning, alerts and live wind monitoring. To evaluate options, PredictWind compared wind observations from buoys and stations against forecasts from several models, including Spire’s SPIRE (Spire Weather Forecast), ECMWF, UKMO and GFS.

In the four‑month study covering ~166 buoy stations with hourly data out to 7 days, Spire’s SPIRE model ranked number 1 for both wind speed and wind direction accuracy. Spire achieved wind speed MAE of 2.5→4.3 knots (Day 1→Day 7) and wind direction MAE of 17→33° (Day 1→Day 7), outperforming ECMWF, UKMO and GFS and demonstrating clear, measurable improvements for PredictWind’s sailing forecasts.

PredictWind

Nick Olson

Marketing & Business Development Manager