weather – Page 5 – Navigation Mac & Co

ECMWF weather data soon open to public [1st part]

Posted on1 October 20203 January 2022

Created in 1975 at the initiative of members of the European Union, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast is an independent intergovernmental organization whose headquarters, until this day, is located in Reading, England. ECMWF is funded by 22 Member States and 12 Associated states. It employs nearly 350 persons, and its supercomputer equipment is one of the largest in Europe. For the past fifteen years or so, ECMWF forecasts tend to be among the most accurate in the world, according to verification data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). ECMWF is currently headed by French meteorologist Florence Rabier, who worked at the local meteorological office of Météo-France.

But, since the advent of Brexit, The situation has changed. The United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU, ECMWF must move to a European country, and this could lead to, For weather data users, consequences rather… Positive ! Read more …

Receive facsimile weather maps with an iPad [Update]

Posted on23 th 202023 th 20249 comments

An SSB receiver for leasure boating

HF Weather Fax to Black Cat Systems is an application allowing you to decode facsimile weather maps on an iPad, an iPhone or Android device. The analysis and forecast maps are provided by radio stations around the World. Broadcast on shortwave, they can easily be received by BLU receivers as found in boating catalogs.
Read more …

Receive graphic weather maps on iPad [Update-2]

Posted on16 th 202016 December 20256 comments

Weather analysis and forecasting maps developed by the NOAA (USA) and the Met Office (UK) cover vast areas over the Wold. They can be obtained sending a request by email to the weather server of british company MailaSail. With the latter, many maps are available in a listing (¹) in which it suffices to click on the links to load the request in a message ready to send.

[Update September 13 th 2025]

The weather models war will take place [Update]

Posted on13 June 20196 th 20244 comments

I relayed in December 2018 an excellent issue published on the blog of our friends at Geogarage, who make a permanent duty of a press review of the best foreign articles concerning cartography, meteorology, and more generally all subjects related to maritime navigation. Here is a translation freely adapted and commented on in French. Read more …

Reading : "Beaufort, l’amiral du vent" by Raymond Reding

Posted on24 October 201829 June 2024

It's a long time since I had made a reading note in this category. Lack of time, or lack of discovery ? I once again found a real literary enthusiasm when I read this excellent book by Raymond Reding : " Beaufort, The Admiral of the Wind ”.

Like any sailor that complies, I know the Beaufort scale since my first legs in sailing school, but, shame on me, I had never tried to find out more about this famous Francis Beaufort ! Raymond Reding, went like me through Les Glénans Sailing school, finally fills this lamentable lacuna with the greatest happiness. Read more …

Weather4D makes its (r)evolution

Posted on26 th 20181 May 202552 comments

Hear, hear, hardy boaters, new Weather4D applications come up !

I wrote “the” in the plural. The two historical applications of Sarl APP4NAV, Weather4D (th 2011) and Weather4D Pro (November 2011 ), change to the user interface of the now famous application Weather4D 2.0, which had been the subject of a complete review of its development published in December 2015. In order to make the range more coherent, the names of the three applications are harmonized :

Iridium Mail & Web app : GRIB weather files on iPhone and iPad in open sea [Update-2]

Posted on2 June 201711 th 202415 comments

[Update 15 February 2019] The recent update of the application Iridium Mail & Web app gives me the opportunity to refresh this post originally written in December 2011.

The Wi-Fi Gateway Optimizer from RedPort allows owners of a mobile satellite phone to make requests and receive GRIB weather files from an iPad or iPhone on the high seas, into the wild, anywhere on the world.

After implementing and testing this solution On a long journey, It proved to be perfectly operational. However, it is limited to the receipt of the forecasts of the GFS weather model worldwide, and the wave pattern WW3, obtained by the American server's autoresponder Saildocs.

Weather4D 2.0 revisits navigation on iPad [Update]

Posted on29 December 20156 th 202432 comments

Weather4D 2.0 is available sur Apple AppStore (*). After the success of the first two versions, APP4NAV company just revisit chart navigation on iPad and iPhone by integrating the timing dimension. With simulations and weather routing, navigation becomes predictive, allowing a constant anticipation of future weather conditions and sea state. This “navigation into the future”, relied on the quality of meteorological and oceanographic predictions today available, was designed in order to bring a new dimension to the safety of boaters. Read more …

Météo-France GRIB files finally for free

Posted on26 July 201516 th 20253 comments

A year after my advocacy for free European data (¹) Météo-France finally offers free access to its two famous ARPEGE and AROME models. A welcome development, started in 2014 by the success of MyOcean, since then integrated into Mercator Ocean (²), but a notable change of attitude for a public establishment which has always been asked to self-finance a significant part of its budget. Forecasts from these two models are made available on Météo-France portal in the GRIB version 2 format. Since the 21 July 2015.

New GFS grid 0.25° model

Posted on12 January 20155 th 20244 comments

By a corrected notification on 23 December 2014 (¹), with NWS (National Weather Service) NOAA announced a major update to its GFS weather prediction model to be effective in mid-January 2015. Actually, This model has been partially available on an experimental basis since the beginning of December.

NOTE

March, the Global Forecast System (GFS) is a weather forecasting model produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) dependent on the NWS. Dozens of variables (²) are available through this dataset, from the temperatures, winds and precipitation down to soil moisture and atmospheric ozone concentration. The entire world is covered by the current GFS model with a horizontal resolution of 27 km between grid points up to 10 days. The horizontal resolution is 70 km for forecasts between one week and two weeks. The GFS model is a coupled model, Composed of four distinct models (An atmospheric model, An ocean model, A terrestrial model, and a sea ice model), that compete together to give an accurate picture of weather conditions. Changes are regularly made to the GFS model to improve the performance and accuracy of the forecasts. Mesh data is available for download via NOMADS servers (National Operational Model Archive and Distribution System) and widely used by app developers around the world.