Safety & Weather Warnings
A fishing read is planning support
A GO, MAYBE, or SKIP read answers one question: does the weather window look worth your time? It is built for planning a trip, not for judging whether conditions are safe once you’re out. Reads are refreshed periodically from forecast data — they are not a live radar feed, and weather on the water can change faster than any forecast.
Warnings belong to official sources
Fishing Weather does not issue or relay official watches and warnings. Before you head out — and while you’re out — check the official channels for your area: in the United States, the National Weather Service (weather.gov) publishes thunderstorm, high-wind, flood, and marine warnings. Those alerts always outrank anything a fishing read says.
Lightning and storms
If thunderstorms are forecast or you can hear thunder, stay off the water — regardless of what any read, app, or window says. Open water is one of the worst places to be in a lightning storm, and no fishing window is worth it.
What a weather read can’t see
Reads are built from weather and environmental forecasts. They do not know about local hazards — cold-water shock risk, fast current, dam releases, thin ice, closed ramps, or local regulations. Local postings and your own judgment on site are the authority on all of those. For what a read actually contains, see how it works.
In an emergency on or near the water, contact local emergency services immediately (911 in the United States). Fishing Weather is not an emergency service.