Kitesurf spot guide
Lake Neuchatel & Lake Geneva
GENEVA & NEUCHATEL WEATHER FORECASTS
As with most places, there’s no single forecast that can tell you if there’s going to be wind or not, but some of the more reliable ones include NZZ and Meteocentrale.
MeteoSwiss, Windguru, and Windy are also great apps to use. Winguru and Windy predict frontal winds so work well on both Geneva and Neuchatel where the wind is largely a result of frontal winds rather than pure thermal regimes.
Check out our other kiting locations here:
Lake Como Kite Spots
LAKE COMO WEATHER FORECASTS
The reliability of Lake Como winds has made the lake a popular place for wind sport enthusiasts. Forecasting models like Windguru and Windfinder are great at predicting the wind in a lot of places, but they forecast larger-scale pressure systems and don’t pick up the smaller-scale thermal regimes or (importantly) the influence of the local topography in accelerating the wind at the north end of the lake (known as the ‘venturi’ effect). Because of this they simply don’t work for Como!
We use a combination of a few forecasts to predict the wind on the lake. Il Meteo & Meteocentrale both predict the direction of wind quite well (although they also don’t pick up the venturi acceleration, so understate the wind strength). For a more general picture of the weather, we use the NZZ forecast for the south of Switzerland, and the MeteoSwiss app.
If you want to find out the latest conditions, just give us a call!
Local Como Winds
Blows the whole year from 6-10am out of NE and originates in the “Veltlin” or the “Chiavenna Valley”. This wind can be good for early morning sessions in Val Madrera, Cremia, or Dervio. The north wind especially appears when there are bad weather conditions in the north towards St Moritz in Switzerland.
A northerly wind that often blows after a thunderstorm in the mountains with gusts up to 40-60km/h. Not recommended for kiting, other than in the southern part of the lake if it is stable
Arriving from the South with strong gusts, mainly after thunderstorms in summer.