Not really. Sometimes in the morning they predict rain for the afternoon and that never comes. Or the other way around.

You can't rely on them 100% (and MeteoSuisse themselves say it's not 100% accurate), but forecasts are still way better than no forecasts.

From what I heard, if it's 1-2 days ahead, the reliability is pretty good. 3-5 is still OK. Beyond 5 it's low.

Is this the first time you encounter weather forecasts? No, you can not "really depend" on them, but you can get an informed guess.

The way I understand meteorology (you'll notice my use of this word to give my point greater perceived weight):

- They're able to predict the weather for the next day quite accurately

- Anything more than 3 days ahead is nothing more than an educated guess. 

Edward, I think that's a gross oversimplification, it all depends on the current situation, as well as local peculiarities.

E.g there are times when there is high-pressure all over Europe, which means that they know that there will be stable good weather for a while.

To the conrary, I heard a meteorologist explain that especially summer weather can be very difficult to predict. Since the difference between hot, humid weather, and thunderstorms are so small, it's very difficult to predict which way the scales will tip.

--tor

For very-short-term prognistics, (e.g. to see whether to lay the table indoors or outdoors) I like to see the weather radar on romandie.com/meteo. This gives a very clear idea of whether it will rain or not in the next few hours.

A few other weather sites are to be found on http://openmilonga.ch/spip/spip.php?article12&lang=fr

Remembering my student job in a weather department I agree with Edward. Also the mountains in Switzerland and a lake like in Geneva can produce a micro climate. 

Sometimes I am amazed to see how quickly the weather changes in the mountains.

Geneva's weather is less stable than in Berlin where I lived before. Here you can have sun in the morning, heavy rain or hail during the day and great sunshine again when walking out of the office.

@ Rena

Were you a weather girl?

I do see Tawb's point that it depends on the situation how easy things are to predict. 

When I really NEED to know the weather forecasts, I'm using 2-3 different "meteo" websites, including this one:

http://www.meteo-geneve.ch/

They often show differents forecasts for the same day ... so difficult to trust one more than the other(s), so I kind of "shake" the 2-3 forecasts together ... and wait for the cocktail to come

BTW, does anyone know how to find the water temperature here in Geneva, withour having to stick youir toe in it?

(I've found measuring stations in the Lausanne area, but I don't know how relevant that is for us who are downstream.)

I look at the Bains des Paquis website

http://www.bains-des-paquis.ch/

A many thanks to Nir, Edward, Tawb, Maria for the comments. I presume 1day earlier is the best forecast. Thanks to Tawb, Daisy, Bertrand for the websites, check in 2-3 sites is what i do too. Rena, I agree with you in Geneva we have such ups & downs in 1day, its so unpredictable.

So i'll be going finally to Kabir's BBQ as my forecasts says its goin to be mostly sunny right upto the end of this weekend.

http://www.glocals.com/things-to-do/geneva/47917.htm

I enjoyed having so many feedbacks for my 1st post. You guys are most welcome to continue...:-))

I actually think they are reasonably good here - try scheduling a BBQ in Melbourne !!! Currently I use

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Geneva+Switzerland+SZXX0013

which gives good indicators.

In the lake

http://www.sisl.ch/leman_temperature.htm

the farmers use the landi weather site, it has the best radar

http://www.landi.ch/meteo/fra/niederschlagsradar_20325.aspx

alpinists often look at Chamonix.com

for mountaineering there is a good norwegian site

http://www.yr.no/place/Switzerland/Bern/Eiger/

but meteosuisse.ch is generally not bad, they got it right today!

sun!