Sailing Weather Information
Once you are out for sailing, one of the first thing you will notice is how
much you depend on the wind and weather. Knowing as much as possible about these
powerful forces might be crucial and a question of survival under some
circumstances.
Even if you are just on a little daysailing trip, studying the
weather forecast should precede your offshore adventure. To assist you with
that, I collected a couple of links that I found useful. They will point you to
general references as well as local weather forecast sites.
Specific Sailing and Cruising Forecasts
http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/
Extensive information on marine weather, water temperatures, waves and tropical
storms. From heavy weather to sunshine, this website will guide you well.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm
NOAA's National Weather Service is a great source of information for marine
weather. Several sub-sections and links to regional pages help to find the info
you need.
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/
Another site by NOAA, "Tides & Currents" tells you everything a sailor needs to
know about tides and currents. Who would have guessed that from the title? On a
serious note, this website is very valuable and offers references to other great
services.
http://www.wmo.ch/index-en.html
The World Meteorological Organisation is a UN suborganisation and operates this
website. It is multilingual and presents information not only, but also about
marine weather.
http://www.wunderground.com/auto/boatscom/tropical/
Another page from Wunderground, this one deals specifically with tropical
weather and might be of use to you if you are cruising in the Caribbean, the
Indian or Pacific Ocean or Southeast Asia.
https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/
The US Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center
http://www.weather.gov/ahps/
If you need to keep an eye on rivers, this page by NOAA will help you
http://weathernews.com/us/c/services/vp/oceanwatch.html
Ocean Watch offers marine weather services for cruisers and other offshore-folks
http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/
National Data Buoy Center, the name says it all - highly useful, as all NOAA
pages
General Weather Forecast
http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/
Simply CNN's weather section - permanently updated and easily accessible
http://www.weather.com/
Delivers quick and easy weather forecasts for all areas worldwide
http://weather.yahoo.com/
Yahoo! tells you everything you need to know about weather from your area -
better for coastal regions and towns, though, not so much for offshore purposes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/
BBC weather reports - with all the rain in England, these guys know when the sun
shines
Local Weather Service for the U.S.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/
Southern Region
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/
Central Region
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/
Western Region
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/
Eastern Region
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/hq/
Pacific Region
http://www.arh.noaa.gov/
Alaska Region
Specialist's Weather Websites
http://www.greatweather.co.uk/
Ant Veal's UK Weather Centre concentrates on the areas on and around the British
isles
http://www.weather.org.uk/
A UK weather site that is particularly useful for people with low bandwidth or
text-only browsers
http://metmarine.com/
Met Marine sends marine weather forecast information to your cell phone
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/
The University of Dundee's Satellite Receiving Station offers a lot of general
information from reliable sources
http://www.meto.gov.uk/
A public website of British origin that provides weather information useful for
sailors and other people
http://www.rmets.org/index.php
Official Website of the Royal Meteorological Society - think of their legacy to
navigation and maritime history, when you stop by this website!
http://www.wendywindblows.com/
Wendy Windblows - sounds like a somewhat dubious movie, but is in fact a
wonderful site with information on weather for recreation
http://www.franksingleton.clara.net/
Weather for Sailors by Frank Singleton - interesting colors, but very useful
even for people with low bandwidth
http://www.rte.ie/aertel/p162.htm
RTE sailing weather forecast - another site for people with bandwidth pressure
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/sail.htm
Marine Weather forcast for Britain and Ireland
http://clipper.coastweather.com/
A commercial offer with the option to sign up for subscriptions
http://users.erols.com/gulfstrm/
Jenifer Clark's Gulfstream - a website dedicated to marine weather
http://oceanweather.com/
Another weather service, of use probably mostly for cruisers
http://marineweather.com/
They got the domain that says it all - Marine Weather
http://tww.id.au/wea/weather.html
Folklore Weather Forecast - private website
Further Reading
Back to "directory"
Weather and the Beaufort Scale
Foul Weather Gear Part I
Foul Weather Gear Part II
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