Mariners Weather Log Vol. 58, No. 2, August 2014

The National Weather Service's Experimental National Marine Weather Web Portal

David S. Soroka
Marine and Coastal Weather Services Branch
Marine Program Manager

The National Weather Service’s (NWS) Experimental National Marine Weather Web Portal: provides observations, forecasts, short and long-fuse warnings and a host of other pertinent meteorological data for mariners on an ESRI/Google based interactive website interface for the entire United States including OCONUS areas. Before the development of this portal, only region-specific information on marine and coastal conditions had been collected by, stored and disseminated from a wide range of government and academic institutions which included a variety of information types and protocols.

The purpose of this experimental website is to provide our customers and partners a comprehensive web based portal to access forecasts, coastal ocean observations and monitoring activities in one website. The multitude of layers available within the portal will provide a one-stop shop for all weather related needs for mariners, near shore enthusiasts and coastal managers. Gridded forecast and model data, overlays including sea surface temperatures and nautical charts will provide users the required situational awareness to assist them in making the best decisions possible. The format of the portal will allow for the integration of dynamic data sets that will complement the standard suite of data available from routine NWS products and services and present the data in both graphical and text format. In addition, the flexible nature of the portal will allow the developer to add further information as the NWS expands its decision support services in the coastal arena to include more refined information and both increased time and spatial resolution. The portal supports NOAA’s Mission Goals of Serving Society's Needs for Weather and Water Information and Supporting the Nation's Commerce with Information for Safe, Efficient, and Environmentally Sound Transportation and fully integrates with the Weather Ready Nation initiative.