TRY GRIB FILES RATHER THAN HF RADIO WEATHERFAX IF YOU HAVE INTERNET
HF RADIO WEATHERFAX:
First check for storms!!
Click on your area for local storms:
Current Pacific Weather
Info
Picture.
Current Atlantic Weather
Info
Picture.
First check for storms!!
Click on your area for local storms:
Current Pacific Weather
Info
Picture.
Current Atlantic Weather
Info
Picture.
While cruising, we relied extensively upon high frequency weather facsimiles (HFFAX), even when we were not offshore, because it is the only place where we could have access to relatively long range forecasts, more than 24 hours, in particular during a crosing. We received these HFFAXs with our Ham radio set and our laptop computer. There is now some information about curently valid HFFAXs available on the internet, in particular from US sources. We will try to keep up with this information and make it available to cruisers on our web page.
There is already a web site that covers a lof of HFFAX material, organized somewhat differently from here.
NMF Boston, Massachusetts. North Atlantic
NMG New Orleans, Louisiana. Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean & Tropics
NMC Pt. Reyes, California. Eastern North Pacific
KVM70 Honolulu, Hawaii. Pacific Ocean
NOJ Kodiak, Alaska. North East Pacific
The US Navy did transmit HF weatherfaxes that we often used, in particular in the Med, but they stopped doing so in January 1999, using instead satelite transmissions. Some of their weather faxes are available on the internet and we will provide links to a few of them that we have found useful. The US Navy, the Fleet Numerical Metrology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), now makes available on the internet the output of their NOGAPS (Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System). It is a lot of data in a very convenient format, but the charts are a little coarse to our liking for cruising purposes close to shore. You may nevertheless still be interested in these charts.. Check other US NAVY charts at the bottom of this page.
Other world wide station schedules can be obtained from NOA in PDF format.
North Atlantic NMF Boston, Massachusetts,
Gulf of Mexico, Caribean & Tropics NMG New Orleans, Louisiana,
Eastern Pacific NMC Pt. Reyes, California.
If you run into problems, bad links or if you have suggestions to improve
this page send an email to: Francis@francisperey.com
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| NWS: Analysis 40W - 95W |
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| NWS: Analysis 10E - 45W |
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| NWS: 24H Forecast 45W - 95W |
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| NWS: 48H Forecast 10E - 95W |
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| NWS: 96H Forecast 10E - 95W |
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| NWS: Continental U.S. |
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| NWS: Tropics 05S - 35N, 0 - 120W |
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| NWS: 24HR Forecast |
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| NWS: 72HR Forecast |
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| NWS: Analysis,115W-175W |
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| NWS: Analysis,175W-135E |
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| NWS: Forecasts,115W-135E |
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| NWS: Forecasts,115W-135E | ||||
You may also obtain many charts for all the worlds oceans from the US NAVY Public web site.
1- You can download the software ViewFax to view the files. You then send an email to: query@saildocs.com.
You can put anyhing you want in the subject, but there must be a subject and in the text of the email you insert:
send gfs:lat0,lat1,lon0,lon1/dlat,dlon/VTs/Params
lat0,lat1,lon0,lon1 are the latitude longitude limits (whole degrees followed by N/S or E/W
dlat,dlon is the grid increment in degrees (e.g. "1,1" for a 1-deg by 1-deg grid), if omitted the default is "2,2", The minimum increment is 0.5 degree.
VTs is a comma separated list of valid times (e.g. "24,48,72"), if omitted the default is "24,48,72".
For sailing purposes Params are: PRMSL,wind
For example you might have in the text of the email: send gfs:20N,50N,30W,60W/2,2/24,48,72/PRMSL,wind
Within minutes you will receive a reply to your email with a grib file attached to it. The file for the above email was about 48 KB. You save this file in your computer and view it with ViewFax.
2- You can instead use the free, windows only, UGRIB software. To do so you must first register on their web site: http://www.grib.us and then download the Ugrib software to install in your computer. Ideal for use either ashore or on a limited bandwidth connection e.g. onboard a yacht. Ugrib will let you choose your resolution, timesteps, variables etc. Also you can save these settings for future use.
