Blue Water Insurance

An Insurance Agency for Cruisers 

Favorite Links

One of the problems we all have with the Internet is wading through millions of websites to find a few that are truly useful. We have made this easier for you by organizing a few of our favorite sailing links into categories. We hope you enjoy them and find them useful. If you know of a site which is especially interesting, drop us an email and we'll see about adding it to our list.

Weather Links

There are literally thousands and thousands of weather links on the Internet. This information overload makes it difficult to know what sites to visit, unless you have a huge amount of time. The weather sites listed below are our favorites. If you have interesting sites you'd like to share drop us an email.

Links are organized loosely into basic worldwide weather faxes, computer forecasts, tropical coverage, current condition reports, satellite data and oceanography sites. Where applicable, a few of the URLs are listed in multiple categories.

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/marine.shtml

National Weather Service home page for NWS marine charts on the Internet. The place to start for surface and 500mb charts for both US coasts and the Caribbean.

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/honofax.shtml

National Weather Service Honolulu fax charts for various altitudes and surface.

http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/

Australian Bureau of Meteorology home page. High seas text broadcasts along with cyclone warnings.

http://www.bom.gov.au/reguser/by_prod/nwc/mar.shtml

Australian fax charts, sea surface temperature, and long term analysis.

http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/national/charts/24hour_cgen.shtml

Current weather fax chart for Australia, New Zealand, Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea.

http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/national/satellite/

Latest satellite images of Australia and Southern Ocean. If you are in New Zealand, a good chance to see what's coming at you.

http://www.MET.CO.NZ/home/PRODUCTS/PUBLIC_FORECASTS.HTML

New Zealand coastal and high seas forecasts.

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/otherfax.shtml

UK, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Melbourne/Wellington, Montreal, and Tokyo fax chart links.

http://www.meteo.fr/special/index.html

French Met Service home page for marine charts.

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http://152.80.49.210/PUBLIC/WXMAP/GLOBAL/

This is the best site on the Internet for looking up the output of the NOGAPs, MRF and AVN computer model, by region. You will find current and projected output for surface and upper levels as well as vorticity in colored fax charts. This is one of the key sites used by forecasters around the world. They compare the data from the various models, take into account the satellite images, and then make their own forecasts based on which model's data they think is stronger. DO NOT CONFUSE THIS MODEL DATA WITH OUTPUT WITH HUMAN INTERVENTION - WHICH IS USUALLY MORE ACCURATE. However, where 500mb data is not broadcast, the 500mb data here can be extremely valuable.

http://polar.wwb.noaa.gov/waves/waves.html#paci.wind

Wind and wave forecasts from current to 72 hours for around the world. Based on NCEP global computer models output and satellite imaging.

http://www.magma.ca/~intermet/metmodin.htm

Links to various computer models from around the world. Everything from the US aviation and medium-range forecast model to the US Navy NIOGAPs plus European model outputs.

http://www.ecmwf.int

European Community medium-range forecast models for sea surface and 500mb levels for 72 to 144 hours. Polar views (North and South) along with North Atlantic and Tropical Atlantic details.

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(A few of these URLs also appear in other categories.)

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

National Hurricane Center Tropical Prediction Center. Latest faxes, hurricane advisories, and satellite images.

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/honofax.shtml

National Weather Service Honolulu fax charts for various altitudes and surface.

http://www.meto.gov.uk/sec2/sec2cyclone/tcim.html#nhem96

UK Met Service tropical hurricane images from around the world. Movies and still satellite images.

http://facs.scripps.edu/surf/stormtracks.html

University of Hawaii World Wide Tropical Storm tracks. Good site to check on worldwide tropical storm activity.

http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/meso/New/wmocas_pubs
/global_guide/globa_guide_intro.htm

A global guide to cyclone forecasting put together by experts around the world. Interesting facts, charts, images.

http://lumahai.soest.hawaii.edu/Tropical_Weather/tropical.shtml

University of Hawaii tropical ocean/cyclone home page. Forecast data, tracks, and satellite images for Pacific and Indian Oceans. Note that this includes links to the Navy in Guam, Fiji, and Australia.

http://www.caribwx.com/

Caribbean Weather-a commercial site with current satellite images, synoptic chart, and written forecasts for the region.

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http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/sfctxt.html

Current conditions for US coastal waters.

http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/ccus.html

Current data on cloud, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure and temperarutre. Updated hourly.

http://www.ems.psu.edu/wx/radsearch.html

On this page you enter the latitude and longitude for a given piece of ocean, and it will return to you all of the offshore observations within a specified diameter. An excellent source for the "real" weather.

http://www.ems.psu.edu/wx/userobs.html

Gateway to find archived and current observation data, primarily land-based, but also some offshore and island areas.

http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/ccworld.html

An interesting site via NOAA where you can select a country from around the world and download the current conditions. Loads slow.

http://www.nws.fsu.edu/buoy/

Current conditions for sea state, temperature, and wind from ocean buoys situated around the world.

http://www.nwsla.noaa.gov/marine.html

Links to buoys, marine observations, ship reports and marine forecast charts (emphasis on California but other data from around the world).

http://facs.scripps.edu/surf/socal.html

Southern California buoy reports.

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http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/pdus.html

Satellite images for Meteosat, Japanese GMS, and US Goes. Good coverage for Europe and the South Pacific.

http://www.nws.mbay.net/satl.html

Links to satellite images for California, Western and North Pacific, tropics, Atlantic, and Europe.

http://www.nwsla.noaa.gov/sat.html

Various satellite images from West Coast of US and around the world.

http://www.saa.noaa.gov/index3.html

Home page for NOAA satellite images.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/satellite/satellitedata.html

Home page for satellite images in the US. Current and historical data.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics.html

GOES 8 and 10 and Meteostat satellite home page.

http://www.eso.org/observing/weather/

Satellite images from Eumestats Meteostat satellite. Current data from South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/

Geostationary satellite server from NOAA for East and West Coasts of the US, Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii. Visible, infrared, and water vapor images for all areas.

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http://www.goflow.com

Tidal Current models for a number of locations. Integrates with various forms of racing software. An interesting tool to help you get where you're going with the most efficient course.

http://polar.wwb.noaa.gov/omb/products.html

Home page for world wide ocean wave models, polar and great lakes ice, vessel icing warnings, and fog predictions.

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