Did you ever wish you had a personal sensor out, giving you a constant data stream on live marine weather?
If you’re into boating, surfing, or other water sports, you probably don’t have a whole lot of time to spend on other things. Like tracking wave height at your buoys. Or keeping tabs on what the wind is doing, both where you’re at and where you’re planning to end up.
But those things are important, too. If you want to have safe fun, you have to know what’s happening in the water and in the air around your favorite splashing grounds.
That’s why there’s an app to do it for you. NOAA Buoys Live Marine Weather. Get a premium subscription to this app, and you’ll have your own personal weather tracker at your beak and call.
It doesn’t cost much, and what you get makes it worth it. First, you get push notifications when there’s a risk of developing high waves around your favorite buoys: simple notifications sent to you whether or not you’ve opened your app that day. That, already, can be a game changer.
You also get a helpful notice if a buoy near to one of your favorites has very different wind or water data than your preferred buoy. Suppose, for instance, you love hanging out near Long Beach, California. If Long Beach is dealing with some major wave action while neighboring Dana Point is relatively calm, you’ll hear about it.
App Coverage
The basic app itself has constantly updated data from more than 1000 buoys, covering the United States and including the Gulf of Mexico, the North Pacific/Hawaii region, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Alaska, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. Sometimes you may check your buoy only to find out the data is incomplete or, worse yet, not updated at all. This means the buoy is not reporting data, and is never the apps fault. If you meet with this problem, simply follow the link to nearby buoys to find a place that has updated weather data.
Note that sometimes, in your favorite list, you’ll see a database symbol. This means that the data is more than eight hours old. Again, this happens only when the buoy itself does not provide updated data: your app will always get all the information available to you, live.
And whenever a new buoy is available, you’ll get a notification in your newsfeed.
A new experimental warning signal has been added for the premium subscribers. The system will analyze the changes in wind direction around your favorite buoys and will send you a push notification if a low-pressure system is approaching.
It is also possible to see real cams for more than 30 buoys.
Live marine weather info at your fingertips, when you’re looking for it and when you’re not. What more could you ask for?
