National Weather Service

National Weather Service

Taunton, MA

Marine Program
NWS Taunton Marine

The National Weather Service in Taunton is responsible for marine forecasts for the following areas. The coastal waters forecast is from Merrimack River MA to Watch Hill RI (from the shoreline seaward to 25 nms) including Boston Harbor, Cape Cod Bay, Buzzards Bay and Narragansett Bay). Regularly scheduled forecasts are issued around 4 am, 10 am, 4 pm, 10 pm daily. Forecasts will be updated as needed. Special Marine Warnings (5MW) will be issued on an event driven basis. A Special Marine Warning is to warn mariners of a short fused, short lived weather event which could be hazardous to marine operations. Criteria for issuing an SMW include:

1. Winds of 34 kts or greater either in gusts or sustained for a short duration (usually two hours or less)

2. Passage of a squall line over the coastal waters.

3. Passage of a strong thunderstorm cell over the coastal waters.

4. SMW may be issued for either the coastal or offshore waters.

5. SMW is to be valid for up to two hours. It may be issued when a Small Craft Advisory is in effect. It is not to take the place of a Gale or Storm Warning if there is a possibility of the conditions persisting.

For additional information on the NWS Taunton Marine Program, please contact either:

Tom Fair, Marine focal or Jeff Osiensky. Marine Evaluation focal at (508) 823-1900/1983.

MAREPS

The National Weather Service needs your help !!! If you spend any time out on the waters... you realize the importance of a timely and accurate weather forecast. Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of data from out over the waters. To help us in providing you a better forecast, we have expanded our MAREP (Mariner Report) system.

One clement of this program is to use cellular phone. Because so many mariners have cellular phone service on their boats, the NWS sought to use this method of communication for receipt of marine weather observations. Through a gratis (no charge) service with NYNEX and Cellular One.. you may call the National Weather Service in Taunton and speak with the marine forecaster. We ask that you use this service to call in marine reports.

The information that we are most interested in would be the time...location…wind speed and direction and sea height. In return, the marine forecaster can provide you with a timely update to the forecast for your particular area.

Call our office at 1-508-828-2672 for the toll free MAREP phone number.

Then all you need to do is dial the toll free number with your MAREPs!!!!

Thank you for your support! !!

Internet addresses

As we expand into the age of information.. many folks are gaining access into the internet. The internet is host to a wide range of weather data from hundreds of sources. Anything from current radar, satellite, forecasts and weather observations can be accessed easily.

Here are a couple of internet addresses that may be of interest to you:

National Weather Service Taunton MA homepage

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/box

This homepage includes the coastal waters forecast.

Also…many links to several other NWS offices across the US!!

National Weather Service - Marine Prediction Center

http://www.neep.noaa.gov/MPC

This page includes the New England area offshore waters including Gulf of Maine...Georges Bank and South of New England. Also includes mid Atlantic offshore and Atlantic high seas forecasts.

Interactive marine observations

http://www.met.fsu.edu/~nws/buoy/ne.html

This page lets you gain access to near real time buoy data across the northeast US.