Weather actuals

This page has been produced for those sailing in waters around NW Europe and who wish to know the latest weather occurring rather than a forecast. Noting the great improvements in weather prediction over recent years and the way in which National Weather Service NWP models use all available data - see the NWP page on use of data - it is debatable just how much use can be made by a sailor of such data.

Some "reports from coastal stations" are included with the BBC Shipping Forecast on Radio 4 LW at 0048 and 0535 LT. Because of pressures on time available in the BBC schedules and the importance given to the shipping forecasts over and above the actuals, it is very unlikely that the BBC will give more air time for this purpose during the daytime.

When at sea, the Coast Guard can always be called up on marine VHF. However, at present, they seem to have very little actual data immediately available to them. They may have reports from other vessels at sea. Otherwise, they may only know what is happening in their immediate locality.

Ways of obtaining current weather information.

BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast

After the late night and early morning shipping forecast on Radio 4 LW, 198 kHz, there are reports from Tiree, Stornoway, Lerwick, Fife Ness, Bridlington, Sandettie LV, Greenwich LV, Jersey Airport, Channel LV, Scilly, Valentia, Ronaldsway and Malin Head. Where these are automatic stations this is stated. After the late night forecast there is a second list of reports, some repeat the earlier list. Others are additions.

The Internet

This is not normally available when at sea but easily accessible in harbour or at anchor using a mobile phone GPRS connection to a laptop PC. This gives the most comprehensive set of data available. Useful sites around the British Isles include -

Latest Marine hourly observations from around the UK and including open ocean buoys to the west pf the British Isles and Biscay. Undated hourly/
The latest hourly observations from UK land stations are on the Met Office Education Pages . These contain hourly reports from a selection of “official” Met Office stations.. Unfortunately, few are near the coast. There is an archive that allows access to the latest data and back about 4 weeks.
The BBC Weather Site has links to a larger number UK land stations although, again, few are representative of the open sea and only available on a three hourly or longer basis. The BBC site is fairly heavy to download, important if using a mobile phone connection.
UK Weather is a site that has observations updated every 20 minutes from locations all over the UK. Many are not be near the coast. The wind directions are described, curiously as "travelling North East (50 degrees)". That means a NE wind!.
The Irish Met Service Observations Pages are more useful to sailors because they give Irish buoy data from the ring of buoys around Ireland. This is a very quick page to download and gives the latest hourly data. another page has the latest hourly data from the Irish land stations.
German coastal actual reports gives the last three reports from locations around the German Nordsee and Ostsee coasts. An extended list of latest Nordsee and Ostsee coastal reports. Actuals from the English Channel to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Buoy, Light Vessel and Rig data around the British Isles are on the US NOAA NDBC site. Because this includes data from some private rigs, it is more complete than the UK Met Office Marine page. In both cases it is necessary to look at one location at a time, but there are hourly reports for a day or more back. With each location, the US site also gives access to the latest QuikScat Wind data (Satellite measured surface wind). Some care is needed with these as there is some directional ambiguity in the data processing. Additionally, the US site gives access to nearby ship and other sea surface observations.

The BBC Weather Site has a slightly shorter list of British Isles Marine Automatic Stations. reports are given as reports for the last day at every three hours. Again, on a mobile phone the US NDBC downloads will be smaller.

The most comprehensive source of actual wind data for weather observing sites over the British Isles and France is the XCWeather site. This gives latest wind data from airfields, data buoys, light vessels etc. Hover the pointer over a wind arrow and read off he location and the latest wind. Be careful though, because some data are refreshed every 20 minutes, some every hour and others less often. Read off the time applicable. There are also forecasts for 5 days ahead interpolated from the 1/2 x 1/2 degree US GRIB coded data. Such interpolations is of dubious value near coasts and over land.
The NOAA NDBC French Buoy gives access to data buoys around France, in Biscay and the western Mediterranean.
For more complete observations, try Observations - Map Search to access all marine observations in a geographical area anywhere in the world.
Curiously to European eyes, the US data centre converts the pressures into inches of mercury and temperatures into degrees Fahrenheit as "English" units. This is the default.. Choose metric units for the more usual hectoPascals/millibars and degrees Celsius. Equally curiously, you get more data if you put "English" units!.
* NOTE - Ships usually only report the weather at the main hours of 00, 06, 12, 18 UTC. When using this site, therefore, choose a time shown as "t-2" or "t-3" etc to define one of these main hours. Perhaps better is to choose "the past 6 hours"..
There are plotted weather charts on several sites. Hourly analysis maps for the UK, Nothern Europe and Caribbean with links to other areas. Also, for the UK click here, for other areas and oceans see some of the links on the Chart links page. A decode of weather symbols and an explanation of the plots is on the Met Office site.

Premium Rate Telephone

There is still a MarineCall Current Weather and Observations service although this was withdrawn from the MarineCall portfolio in 2005, It is listed on the RYA MarineCall card for 2005. Numbers are in the form 09064 700 6XX A similar set of numbers starting 09068 226 4XX can be found in the MarineCall literature and Directory Cards for 2003. These services are no longer actively promoted by MarineCall due to low levels of interest.

MarineCall Inshore Sailing Area	Telephone Number	RYA MarineCall Name	Telephone Number
Cape Wrath to Rattray Head	09068 226 451	Scotland North	09064 700 621
Rattray Head to Berwick	09068 226 452	Scotland East	09064 700 622
Berwick to Whitby	09068 226 453	North East	09064 700 623
Whitby to The Wash	09068 226 454	East	09064 700 623
The Wash to North Foreland	09068 226 455	Anglia	09064 700 625
North Foreland to Selsey Bill	09068 226 456	Channel East	09064 700 626
Selsey Bill to Lyme Regis	09068 226 457	Mid Channel	09064 700 627
Lyme Regis to Hartland Point	09068 226 458	South West	09064 700 628
Hartland Point to St. David's Head	09068 226 459	Bristol	09064 700 629
St. David's Head to Colwyn Bay	09068 226 460	Wales	09064 700 630
Colwyn Bay to Mull of Galloway	09068 226 461	North West	09064 700 631
Mull of Galloway to Mull of Kintyre	09068 226 462	Clyde	09064 700 632
Mull of Kintyre to Ardnamurchan	09068 226 463	Caledonia	09064 700 633
Ardnamurchan to Cape Wrath	09068 226 464	Minch	09064 700 634
Lough Foyle to Carlingford Lough	09068 226 465	N Ireland	09064 700 465

The MarineCall SMS contains data for over 180 Coastal locations, For each, it gives current weather report and a forecast for six hours time maximum temperature in degrees Celsius mean wind speed in knots mean wind direction in degrees likelihood of rainfall visibility To use the service, simply create a text message in the form MC plus the name of the location using the list and send it to 83141.The reply will come back within a minute or so. Each message costs 25 p. NOTE Despite being described as "Current weather reports" the data are, in fact,	values deduced by the Met Office data analysis scheme. For some information on that see the NWP Page. This all sounds very impressive and useful but many of the places are not very relevant to conditions at sea. For example, both Dart Marina and Darthaven are included. This raises three issues. First, how good are the wind data? In other words, how well can the Met Office deduce data at places where there are no real data? Secondly, how really site specific are the forecasts given the limitations of numerical modelling? No current operational NWP model is capable of prediction at such precise and specific locations. . Thirdly, how many of the SMS locations have any relevance to the sea in the near vicinity? Looking at the list, many are not. Although the data on the SMS are "virtual" actuals they can be quite useful indicators of current conditions as long as the user understands that they are, effectively, representative of conditions about 10 to 15 miles either side of the named coastal location.
"Unofficial" Automatic Weather Stations eg CHIMET
There are some automatic weather stations sites at strategic locations such as the Chichester Bar (CHIMET) and on the Bramble Bank, at the entrance to Southampton water. These stations report wind and sea state among other parameters. Just how useful these are to the leisure sailor is a matter of personal opinion. Clearly, it must be useful to the master of a large bulk carrier coming up the Solent to know what the wind is like over the Bramble Bank.. On a slow moving yacht two or three hours off the Chichester Bar, I would be looking at the tide tables and working out the state of tide over the bar	for my ETA. In the even of a strong wind, I would be aiming to arrive with the most favourable tide/wind conditions. A knowledge of wave and wind some few hours off would not help very much. I would be well aware of the wind strength and direction. I would have heard the forecast. In such situations conditions will depend greatly on the time in the tidal cycle. Information of such sort may well not be a good indicator of future conditions even a short time ahead. Such data are no doubt interesting, but there is no substitute for good seamanship and careful planning.
Summary
From the above, it can be seen that the Internet is the best access to the latest actual data when ashore, in harbour or within mobile phone range of the coast. Use of a mobile phone text service can give a good estimate of what winds and weather are like at many locations, but these are not, in any sense of the word, actual weather observations. They will give useful information but must be used with care.	A resource that could, in principle be used for longer range transmission of actual observations is the NAVTEX 490 kHz service. At present, this only carries the Inshore waters texts. I do not know how much of the broadcast is taken up by this service, but there should be room for some actual reports appropriate to the three UK NAVTEX stations.

Latest Weather around the UK

Ways of obtaining current weather information.

BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast

The Internet

Premium Rate Telephone

SMS (Short Message Service)

"Unofficial" Automatic Weather Stations eg CHIMET

Summary