NHC Gridded Marine Forecasts

The NHC/TAFB gridded marine forecasts are available in the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD).

Gridded forecasts of marine weather elements are available over the TAFB high seas forecast area of responsibility (AOR), which also includes the offshore waters forecast AOR.

The gridded marine parameters include:

surface (10-m) wind speeds with direction
surface (10-m) wind gusts
significant wave heights
marine hazards

These elements are available at a spatial resolution of 10 km for TAFB's area of responsibility. The data have an initial temporal resolution of three (3) hours out to 72 hours and six (6) hours after that.

The grids are produced by forecasters through the AWIPS Graphical Forecast Editor (GFE) and should be available by 0330, 0930, 1530, and 2130 UTC each day.

With this implementation, forecasts for these elements are available from NDFD in the following standard methods:

Gridded Binary Version 2 (GRIB2) files via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Extensible Markup Language (XML) via Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Graphics via web browser

More details regarding this service are available in the Product Description Document from the online catalog of NWS products and services.

Please see the public information statement for additional information.

View Graphical Forecasts

Click on a geographic location of interest to launch the interactive map.

The marine forecast images are also available via the NDFD graphical interface. Select the "Oceanic" option to view wind speed, wind gusts, significant wave heights, and hazards for the National Hurricane Center, Ocean Prediction Center, CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam areas of responsibility.

[NDFD example grids - click to access viewer]

Access Gridded Data

The NDFD oceanic domain covers the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic basins for the offices issuing offshore waters and high seas forecasts. The upper right lat, lon for this grid is: 79.99N, 10.71E. The lower left corner lies directly on an NCEP grid 204 point, which coincides with all other Pacific region NDFD grids. The lower left lat, lon for this grid is 30.42S, 129.91E.

Specific information on the NDFD grid domains, including the oceanic domain, as well as technical information on accessing and using NDFD elements can be found at https://www.weather.gov/mdl/ndfd_info.

The GRIB2 marine data on the NDFD oceanic domain can be downloaded at the following locations:

Forecast Days	GRIB2 Download Locations (HTTP & FTP)
1-3	http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oceanic/VP.001-003/ ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oceanic/VP.001-003/
4-6	http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oceanic/VP.004-007/ ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oceanic/VP.004-007/

Note: Areas of the NDFD oceanic domain that coincide with the NDFD CONUS domain are included in the CONUS grids as well. Use the NDFD technical page to find access to the CONUS GRIB2 files.

Comments & Feedback

Comments and feedback on the TAFB Offshore and High Seas NDFD elements, as well as the OPC Offshore elements, are welcome at:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=EGOSWHSMF

General feedback on NDFD GRIB2 service:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=ndfd-grids

General feedback on NDFD XML SOAP service:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=xmlsoap

General feedback on the NDFD map viewer:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=wxmap