Marine Weather Links

Public Marine-Weather Websites
Let’s initially focus on specific web pages which are a direct interest to mariners.  Starting with “Rome” for your marine weather, the Ocean Prediction Center (OPC):

• Ocean Prediction Center (OPC)
  Located in Camp Springs, MD, “Rome”, or OPC, should be a mariners first choice for marine weather resources! OPC provides a complete graphics, text, and voice broadcasts suite of marine weather products for the entire North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of 30N. From the OPC web site, one can link to other National Weather Service (NWS) marine weather forecasts sites, including international resources as well.
  
• Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch (TAFB)
  North Atlantic marine weather south of 30N cover the Tropical North Altantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Carribbean Sea. Also, includes the North Pacific south 30N and east of 140W and including portions of the southern hemisphere to 25S.
  
• WFO Honolulu, HI
  North Pacific surface weather south 30N to 30S between 130E and 110W.
  
• National Hurricane Center (NHC)
  Tropical Cyclone forecasts for the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans which includes the eastern Pacific east of 140W.
  
• Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
  Tropical Cyclone Forecast Pacific Ocean west of 140W to the International Dateline is located in Honolulu, Hi.
• U.S. Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Project
  The U.S. Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Project web site below provides general information about the worldwide VOS Programme, contact information for U.S. VOS Project Managers and Port Meteorological Officers, instructions for making and sending weather observations, web efforts related to VOS. Click for some great information on where the NWS/OPC marine weather warnings, analyses, and forecasts products and services gets started!
  
• The National Weather Service (NWS) Marine program
  This is the NWS US marine weather home page which also overlaps and covers both OPC, TAFB, and NHC under the National Centers for Environmental Prediction or NCEP. Both the specialized national center perspective and the local line NWS field forecast office perspective define the US marine forecast program. For example, if one is interested in marine forecasts from Seattle, WA, go to the above link and click on the small red dot that is the Seattle forecast office in Western Washington State. On the left hand side of the home page, click on “marine” under the FORECAST portion of the menu.
  
  The Marine Weather Map Briefing Pages,
  Alpha-numeric Text Forecasts & Public Gulf Stream Sites

• N Atlantic Briefing (Ocean Prediction Center)
• N Pacific Briefing (Ocean Prediction Center)
• Multi-national Atlantic & Pacific Text Products
  
• Public Gulf Stream Websites
  
  Radiofacsimile Schedule of Graphical Charts

• N Atlantic Schedule (Ocean Prediction Center)
• N Pacific Schedule (Ocean Prediction Center)
• N Atlantic & N Pacific Schedules (National Hurricane Center)
• Tropical Pacific Schedule (WFO Honolulu, HI)
  
  Communications – Accessing Marine Weather At Sea

• Saildocs
  Email-based document-retrieval system for low-bandwidth text weather forecasts and GRIB files
• SeaTech Systems
  Computerized navigation, communication, and weather
• FTP MAIL Help

U.S. & Foreign National Government Weather Links

• U.S. Weather Prediction Center (WPC)
• The European Center for Medium Range Forecasting (ECMWF)
• Miscellaneous/International Facsimile Charts (NWS)
  
  North Atlantic Ocean
• Surface Pressure, Weather & Wave Height Chart (Bermuda Weather Service)
• Surface and Forecast Pressure Maps (Geostrophic Wind Scale Included) (British Met Office)
  
  Mediterranean
• Surface Analysis Europe, NE North Atlantic & Mediterranean Sea
  (U.S Air Force 21st Operational Weather Squadron Germany)
• 6-Hourly Surface Forecasts, Europe, NE North Atlantic & Mediterranean Sea
  (U.S Air Force 21st Operational Weather Squadron Germany)
  
  North Pacific Ocean
• Surface Analysis & Forecast Chart (Japan Meteorological Agency)
  
  Southern Hemisphere
• Pacific Ocean Surface Pressure Analysis Chart (.PDF)
  (Australian Weather Service)
• Indian Ocean Surface Pressure Analysis Chart (.PDF)
  (Australian Weather Service)
• Australian Regional 4-Day Surface Pressure Forecast Charts – Color
  (Australian Weather Service)
• Australian Regional 4-Day Surface Pressure Forecast Charts – Black & White
  (Australian Weather Service)
• Australian Regional 4-Day Surface Pressure Forecast Charts – Printable .PDF
  (Australian Weather Service)
• Australian Regional Recent to Past 6-Day Surface Pressure Analysis Charts – Color (6 hourly)
  (Australian Weather Service)
• New Zealand Regional Surface Pressure Forecast Charts
  (New Zealand Weather Service)
• Southwest Pacific Ocean
  (Fiji Meteorological Service)
• Southern Indian Ocean
  (Mauritius Meteorological Service)
• Southern Indian Ocean (Click on Synoptic Charts)
  (Southern African Weather Service)

US & Multi-National Governmental Upper Air and 500 Mb links

• The Weather Prediction Center (WPC’s) 3 to 7 day 500Mb Forecasts
• University of Wyoming
  U of Wyoming’s web page for US 500 Mb Loops
  
• The ECMWF’s Upper Air (including 500 Mb Links)
  You can select to see them over an ocean or polar view
  
• UKMET Maps
• U of Wyoming upper air maps over the U.S.

Meteorological Satellite Instrument Derived Data & Imagery

• Ocean Surface Winds Data Products
  Described in this link are the data products derived from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT & OSCOT) observations. This allows one to get surface winds over the oceans from two sources, as made available from NOAA’s  National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)
• Ocean Prediction Center Satellite Imagery
• Tropical Southwest North Pacific Satellite Imagery

Geographic Information System (GIS) Data

• OPC Experimental GIS Data and Products
  The National Weather Service’s Ocean Prediction Center has begun offering their marine weather charts as .KML files, which allow you to view up-to-date weather information in map software such as Google Maps or Google Earth.

Tracking Vessels at Sea World Wide
The link below include commercial ships such as fishing vessels and maga yachts which have been integrated into the Amver Seas program.

• World Wide Tracking of Vessels Eligible to Report Synoptic Weather Reports
• NOAA’s Ship Tracker
• Marine Traffic
• Ship Finder
• Vessel Tracker