North Atlantic Weather Last Update 10/31/05 Sailboat | Crew | Route | Track | Log | Photos | Weather | Radio
"Whether you do or whether you don't often depends on the weather," David Jones
Topic Description and Links High Seas Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) is the primary source used by all commercial weather services and professional mariners for high seas weather information. The specific links from the OPC site for charts, satellite images, and text forecast products that we will using on our voyage are summarized at OPC High Seas Links. Clicking around here will give you a flavor of what we will be looking at. Hurricanes National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the primary source for all hurricane related information. The surface analysis for the region of hurricane formation between Africa and the Caribbean can be found at QPAA99.TIF. Thiis is the place to look if you are trying to determine if any new hurricanes are forming.
For some great historical information on hurricanes check out Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
Storm Carib is an escellent source of information with a Caribbean focus. The also have an excellent guide to hurricane tracking.
Additional sources for hurricane data include:
University of Wisconsin | Ohio State University | Hurricane Watch net | Florida State UniversityA fascinating look at the storm surge and other critical storm related data can be seen at the NOAA Tides Online site.
An amazing set of hurricane links .
All the hurricanes and their tracks are summarized and ploted at Unisys Weather.
Buoy Data National Buoy Data Center (NBDC) provides real-time weather data for all ocean buoys. A fantastic source of what is happening now! If go to the site you can see a map of where the buoys are located. Buoys of prime interest include:
TPLM2 Thomas Point Light House is located in the Chesapeake Bay just south of Annapolis, MD. CHLV2 Chesapeake Light House is located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay 44014 This ocean buoy is located about 60 miles off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. It is what will be experience immediately upon leaving the bay. 41001
34.7N, 72.7WThis buoy is well into the ocean on the eastern side of the gulf stream about 150 miles east of Cape Hatteras. We will pass just south of this buoy on our way into the abyss. Hurricane Wilma (10/25/05) kissed this buoy on its way into the far more treacherous North, North Atlantic. Note that the OPC calls everything north of the equator the North Atlantic. Of course, north is quit relative. Tortola, our destination, seems very far south at 18 degrees north. Annapolis, our starting point is 39 degrees north. At 60 nautical miles per degree, Tortola is 1260 miles to our south but still in the North Atlantic. Buoy Weather Buoy Weather provides a unique service called virtual buoys. Using ocean models such as WW3, they extrapolate the same type of data provided by real buoys for any lat/long. They will also prepare GRIB charts centered on any desired lat/long. We will be using this information through OCENS. Satellite Images The Godard Space Flight Center (GSFC) of NASA is responsible for managing the GOES satellites, a primary source of satellite weather data:
Links to the satellite images maintained by the NWS can be seen at NWS Links.Marine Obsrerving System Team (MOST) is a branch of NOAA that develops satellite based products for ocean analysis. The scatterometer model QuickScat generaties some amazing charts of wind patterns. A scatterometer is a microwave radar sensor used to measure the reflection or scattering effect produced while scanning the surface of the earth from an aircraft or a satellite. The SeaWinds scatterometer is a microwave radar designed specifically to measure ocean near-surface wind speed and direction. See measuring ocean winds at Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL).
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), Ocean Remote Sensing has definitive data on sea surface temperatures via satellite. Gulf Stream | Chesapeake Bay
Caribbean Weather.org has a terrific annimation of satellite images for the caribbean. This is one of the most attractive and well designed weather presentations on the internet. CARIBWX is the local source for Caribbean weather. Carib Wx was founded by David Jones who died in 2003. Karen and I fondly remember his catchy byline: "whether you do or whether you don't often depends upon the weather." Jones wrote the only book I know of specifically on Caribbean weather. The forecasting for Carib Wx has been assumed by Chris Parker who has also written an excellent book on ocean weather forecasting for cruisers.
Gulf Stream Naval Meteorological and Oceangraphy Center (NMOC) has the best free analysis of the gulf stream. and satellite imagry. Jennifer Clark is another source. She is a retired NOAA weather forecaster who is now a commercial weather forecaster specializing in gulf stream analysis. This data is also available through OCENS.
A superb source of information on ocean currents is the CIMAS program at the Unviversity of Miami. They have extensive data on all ocean currents including the Gulf Stream.
Ocean Remote Sensing at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL) had some detailed Gulf Stream analysis.
Tides NOAA maintains tide monitoring stations around the country to detect storm surges. With the record number of hurricanes we have had in 2005, this sites has become a primary source of information. We have all learned that it is the storm surge that causes the most damage. Forecasters
Herb
HilgenbergHerb is the guardian angel of sailors. He is a ham radio operator who lives in Ontario Canada and volunteers his time to provide daily weather forecasts for sailors in the North Atlantic. Commanders The is a commercial weather routing service used by many offshore sailors. Chris Parker The up and commer Caribbean forecaster who replaced David Jones at Carib WX. His reports are available through OCENS as well. Jennifer Clark She is a retired NOAA weather forecaster who is now a commercial weather forecaster specializing in gulf stream analysis. Her charts are available through OCENS as well. Software
OCENS OCENS is a commercial service that repackages weather data from the internet, compresses it, and makes it available for low speed satellite phone transmission. We will be using this on our trip. Max Sea Maxsea is a French company with a product for weather routing. It is used many racing boats. We hope to be using this on our trip. Maxsea is distributed in the US by Furuno. Models A good introduction to ocean modeling can be found at the Office of Naval Research web site. Marine Modeling and Analyis Branch (MMAB). This group runs the NOAA Wave Watch III model, which can be viewed at Operational Products. They also maintain the regional Ocean Forecast System (OFS) The Navy Layered Ocean Model (NLOM) is a product of the Naval Oceanographic Office.
Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) has stunning color charts based upon their models. The maintain the Wave Watch III (WW3) model. A description and history of the WW3 can be found at the Navy FNOC site.
Global Forecast System model (GFS) is a combination of the AVN (Aviation) and MRF models.
Education Jetstream is the Online Weather School operated by the National Weather Service . This site is designed to help educators, emergency managers, or anyone interested in learning about weather and weather safety. This is an amazing resource for learning about the weather by the most knowledgeable weather forecasters in the world. Chapter 12 of the USCG Seamanship Manual is devoted to weather and oceanography. This is one of those amazing free publications from the US Government.
Miscellaneous Links Bermuda Weather This is the official weather site for Bermuda. See marine forecast. The Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) is an additional source of information about Bermuda weather. USNO The US Naval Obsrvatory publishes the Nautical Almanac, the definitive source for celestial events of interest to mariner. They also provide time zone conversions and times of sunrise and sunset. Pat Healy This is a set of links from a sailing coach at the US Naval Academy. Surf Info Wave data based on Navy FNMOC wave models. Ocean Weather A source of commercial weather products. Their current displays are worth a look. UTC View the current UTC time here
