The National Weather Service’s National Wave Team is experimenting with adding wave detail to marine forecasts such as is shown to the right. The Team is working with coastal NWS offices― including Boston, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Virginia’s Wakefiled―to better support marine decision-making. Writes the NWS about the project goal:
The goal of this project is to provide greater wave detail with more clarity for marine users and partners to support better decision making. Multiple coexisting wave systems are common at any point in the ocean, each containing their own unique height, period and direction. Details on each of these wave systems provides valuable input for marine customers. For example, a very short period wave system moving parallel to the coast may provide significant hazards to small and/or flat bottom vessels leaving an inlet. Meanwhile, longer period waves moving towards the shore produce shoaling hazards near the coast. There are a multitude of similar scenarios that are of interest to various marine users.
NWS continues,
The purpose of this project is to provide mariners with significant wave height and detailed wave information enabling them to make informed decisions. For example, when there are two distinct waves, height, period and direction information for each will be provided to show what makes up the significant wave height. When there is only one important wave group present, then only that wave’s height, period, and direction will be provided, along with the significant wave height.
And as the narrator in the video Wave Detail Experiment - NOAA/National Weather Service says, providing wave detail informs mariners and beach-goers with the information they need to decide whether going out on the water or to the beach is safe.
The National Wave Team is interested in hearing from interested parties via the Experimental Coastal Waters Forecast (CWF) Wave Component Update survey.