I cant remember where I saw the blurb about it, but a few weeks ago one of the e newsletters I get mentioned a new weather site called ScoutLookweather.com. I didnt have time to check it out right away, but with the inconsistency that I get to actually go afield any time I can get an edge on what the weather is going to look like… I am all for it. Later that day I did take time to hop over to the site and check it out. I remember not having a lot of time, but wanted to check it out so that if it was “just another weather site” I could forget about it and free up some of the limited mental space I have.
Once I got time to click on over to ScoutLook I could tell that this may actually be useful for us outdoor junkies! It didnt take long for me to waste several minutes (probably the better part of a half hour-45 minutes in reality) and realize that I was going to have to get back to work. However I new that I needed to check back on it later. Well later came in several short visits just checking out forcasts and checking those against the weatherbug I alwasys have running in the toolbar. So far (remember this is only about 2 weeks in) the forecasts seem to be pretty reliable.
Now this site has me checking back for several reasons, not just the weather updates. ScoutLook actually has tools to help us prepare for our time outdoors. Each page of the site has 2 rows of buttons at the top. The upper row has 3 buttons for Detailed Forecasts, ScoutMaps, and ScoutPics. Detailed Forecasts is self explanitory, ScoutPics is just another place for us all to post our pics and share some fun, but ScoutMaps is one of the cool things I like about ScoutLookweather.com. When you click on ScoutMaps you can create, look at, and track the wind speed & direction of any SPECIFIC area you want. I just was playing around with this feature. I actually uses Google Earth maps and you can zoom right in on an exact spot, mark it, and track it, almost like putting a way point into a gps. It even breaks down into things like a ScentCone for hunters to better judge the wind from their blind or stand, and DriftPoint to help anglers measure the wind drift for boat control!
Another feature I am excited to see them roll out is the supposed upcoming LogBook. This would be a handy dandy thing to be able to keep an online log of our time outdoors, in a place we can post up pics, and track the weather & wind in several different locations. With ScoutLook you could keep track of several different spots like your home hunting territory, your place up north, that honey hole on your favorite lake, and be able to do it all from the same website without having to login 8 different times to find the info.
I might just be a psuedo tech junkie, but I know that my time on the water & in the woods is precious. So if I can track a few different places and not have to put a lot of work into it, I am all for it. I dont really know long ScoutLook has been around, but from where I sit (at the bait shop) this looks like a promising venture. The site loads fast, is well layed out, easy to navigate, and I have already create my account and put in our hometown & Athelstane, WI because that is where I am spending the next 5 days! Peshitgo river… Here comes the Squirm Family!