The Marine forecasts functionality allows to access some key information to better plan your next trip or to just know if going on the sea today is a good idea.
NOTE: It is necessary to have an active Master subscription to have access to the Marine forecasts.
More in details, you can:
- see the forecasts for wind, waves and currents directly on the map for the next 2 days. Tap the button on the main view and see this incredible new info on the map.
- get a detailed weather forecast for any point in the world for the next 7 days.
- access more than 1000 weather buoys with realtime weather conditions.
Marine forecasts setting page
From the general Settings page you can open the Marine forecasts setting page; here you can configure the way your forecast data is displayed on the map.
At the top of this page you have the switch to enable the display of the Marine forecasts on the map.
Then you have the option to define what to see on the map.
You can select (one at a time) between:
- Surface currents: to show on the map the speed and direction of the surface currents in all the oceans and main seas (this data is coming from the RTOPS and RIOPS models). In addition to this global models, the app also displays very detailed models for the main US Estuarine (data coming from NOAA).
- Wind (at 10m): to show on the map the speed and direction of the wind (at 10 meters from the surface) for the whole world. The models used for this data are the HRRR for the US and the GFS for the rest of the world.
- Waves: to show on the map the height and direction of the waves in all the oceans and main seas. The models used for this data are the NDFD for the US and the GFS for the rest of the world.
Then you can configure how the data is displayed on the map.
You can select (multiple selections are allowed):
- Symbols: to display the forecasts as icons with a direction and whose color and size represent the main info (eg speed for wind or height for waves).
- Colors: to display a colored overlay whose color represent the main info (eg speed for wind or height for waves) of the selected forecast .
- Labels: to display the main info (eg speed for wind or height for waves) as text (overlapped to the Symbols if enabled).
Then you can configure some parameters that impact the display of the data on the map.
- Text & icons size: to select the size of the icons and the texts of the forecast displayed on the map.
- Icons density on map: to select how many icons are displayed on the map.
NOTE: selecting both options at the max value will cause to have a very cluttered screen.
Finally you can select if the legenda has to be shown on the map or not.
Marine forecasts on the map
Here some example of different data display for the Marine forecasts overlay on the map (from left to right: Wind, Currents, Waves).
To activate the overlay of the Marine forecasts you can open the "Marine forecast setting page" (described above) and switch ON the "Enable overlay".
But there is a quicker way to do the same directly from the map, tapping the "Marine forecasts" button (just above the Settings button on the bottom-right of the map screen).
After tapping on it, you will have the opportunity to select the data to be displayed.
NOTE: after you select an overlay, the Marine forecasts button will change to show the selected data.
To disable the overlay you can tap on the "Marine forecasts" button and select the currently active data (eg in the image above, tapping on the Currents icon will cause to disable the Marine forecasts overlay).
When you enable the Marine forecasts overlay, what you see is the nearest (to your current time) forecast but it is possible to explore the forecasts for the next 40 hours.
Tapping on thebutton (just above the Marine forecasts button) you will start a forecasts simulation, allowing you to select any time (with a 1 hour step) in the following 40 hours.
When the simulation is active you can use the slider to select the desired time or using the or buttons you can move backward or forward for just 1 hour.
NOTE: the data is downloaded from Internet when requested, so you need to wait some seconds for each requested time.
Tapping on the button will close the forecasts simulation and the data display will go back to the actual time.
Weather forecast for a point
In the Map Information details page you have a dedicated row (the second) with a brief description of the current weather for the position selected. If you tap on this row you get a new page containing the detailed weather forecasts for the same position.
NOTE: This info is retrieved from Internet, so you need to have an active Internet connection to get this info.
In this page you have 3 or 4 (in most US areas) different sections:
- NOAA Marine Text Forecasts: this is a service from NOAA that gives weather info and navigation advices for specific areas in US. Tap on the row to open the dedicated page (see below for an example).
NOTE: this service is available only in US, when not available the row will not be present. - Current weather: shows the main Weather info for the selected location at the current time. In the bottom part there is also the sunrise and sunset (and moonrise and moonset) for the day. The background color of the view is a light blue if now it is "day" and dark blue if it is "night".
- Hourly forecasts: shows a synthetic weather info for the next 48 hours with a 3 hours step in US and a 1 hour step in the rest of the world.
You can scroll horizontally to access the next hours. - Daily forecasts: shows a very synthetic info for the next 7 days.
NOAA Marine forecast text (US only)
Weather buoys
Using the dedicated switch in the Settings page, it is possible to display on the map a special type of icons that represent a so called "Weather buoy". These are buoys that give access to real time weather condition at their location.
So, when you tap on one of these icons you get a popup like this one:
then tapping on the icon you open a dedicated page with the last weather condition at the buoy location.
NOTE: The page is retrieved from Internet, so you need to have an active Internet connection to get this info.
Depending on the buoy, you can get different type of weather data: Wind speed and direction; Wave speed, direction and period; Pressure; Visibility; Air and Water Temperature. In addition, on some buoys, you can have a giving textual information for the area around the buoy.
To allow to easily find the Weather buoy you are more interested in, you can search among all the currently active weather buoys in the Search page where there is a dedicated switch in the "Places & POI" filters.