Before heading out on the water, most of us punch on the
VHF and dial in our local National Weather Service station. A computerized voice tells us what weather changes
might be on the way (I’ll save the realities of weather predictions for some future column). With a mast-mounted antenna, you can expect to receive NOAA weather
radio in almost all US coastal waters and up to 50 or more miles offshore.
Once out of VHF range, the HF radio becomes the mariner’s primary source of weather information. You can either tune in to voice broadcasts or you can get your weather information in chart form via fax. To receive weather faxes you must have a weather fax receiver with an integral HF receiver or you can receive weather faxes over an SSB radio connected to an onboard computer. The exploding popularity of computers aboard for other uses has made the SSB/computer option the choice of more and more cruising sailors. However, this is not plug-and-play technology, and anyone not technically inclined will find plenty of challenges in the setup and use.
It has long been possible for sailors with a computer and a functioning modem aboard to connect to an Internet weather site (NOAA or one of numerous others) to access charts and satellite images, but the slow data-transmission speeds of a satellite phone (or a cell phone near shore) makes this a relatively slow process. If you are paying for the call by the minute, you can hear the ka-ching ka-ching ka-ching of the cash register.
Now there is another option, one easy enough for those of us not as quick-witted as we used to be, and fast enough to leave a few dollars in the bank. If you but ask, the National Weather Service (NWS) will send you the forecast chart or satellite image you need directly to your e-mail inbox.
How does this work? In welcomed defiance of the usual government complexity, NWS has made the process astonishingly easy. All you have to do is e-mail a request for the particular image you want and NWS sends it back to you via e-mail. The Weather Service says “turnaround is generally in under one hour,” but our experience is that requested
charts usually arrive in just minutes.
This is an automated system—in effect, a chart vending machine. So like depositing the correct change, you do have to put your request in a specific format. However, if you can type “see Jane run,” you will have no difficulty composing your requests in the required format.
Let’s cut to the chase. In your e-mail program open a “new message” page and on the To: line put in this email address:
ftpmail@weather.noaa.gov
NWS allows you to put anything you want in the subject line. The logical entry is send images, but since this is such a useful service to sailors and it is provided free, I’m inclined to put with profound gratitude.
Once you get the address into your e-mail address book, the potential for error is confined to the body of the message. The most likely error is using the wrong case. Everything should be typed in lower case except the name of the file or files you are requesting. The file name must be all upper case.
Every image request begins with:
open
The next line is:
cd fax
Be sure you space between cd and fax. Equally important, be sure you don’t have any spaces at the end of any of the lines in your request.
Now you are going to tell the NWS what images you want. To do this, you need to know the file name. NWS provides an index of the file names of the images that are available. Today, for example, I wanted the first Atlantic surface analysis of the day along with the 24-hour surface forecast. Here are the two lines that requested those two charts:
get PYAA12.TIF
get PPAE00.TIF
You can request as many images as you like, but keep in mind that these are graphic files that can take some time to download, especially on a satellite phone. It is a good idea to download a number of charts when you have a relatively fast land-line connection and determine which ones will be most useful to you. The charts are updated daily or more often, but the file name remains unchanged, so if you write the file name on each sample chart you will create a handy catalog for later composing your image requests.
The last line of your email should say:
quit
That’s it. The body of my full request looked like this:
open
cd fax
get PYAA12.TIF
get PPAE00.TIF
quit
I sent the request, and by the time I checked a second mailbox and returned to the first one, the charts had arrived.
The files come as an attachment and they are in .TIF format. To view them you will need a TIFF viewer. Our version of Windows (XP) has a native Picture and Fax Viewer that displays .TIF files in full-screen format. Most images are also available in .GIF format, but these are larger files requiring longer transmission times. TIF is nearly always the better choice.
Not only can you download charts and satellite images, but you can also get the NWS interpretation of the latest weather charts by requesting various forecast text (.txt) files that are available. There are additional weather resources accessible this way. However, my work here is done. I just wanted to make you aware that this service is available. To get all the details, including complete listings of the various products available via email, you should go to the Marine Prediction Center web site. The address is www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov. There you will also find a legend for interpreting the various symbols on NOAA weather charts, along with a hat full of other useful weather information.
Try it. It is way cool.
