Marine Forecast Offices & Centers provide links to their products as well as additional regionally focused information. Click on map for links.

Did you know that the height of some individual waves may be twice the height of the forecast seas? And may present an even greater danger near shore?

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MARINE PRODUCTS VIA NAVTEX

NAVTEX is an international automated medium frequency (518 kHz) direct-printing service for delivery of navigational and meteorological warnings and forecasts, as well as urgent marine safety information to ships. It was developed to provide a low-cost, simple, and automated means of receiving this information aboard ships at sea within approximately 200 nautical miles of shore. NAVTEX stations in the U.S. are operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. There are no user fees associated with receiving NAVTEX broadcasts. Within the U.S., there are no current plans to broadcast NAVTEX on the alternate designated frequencies of 490 or 4209.5 kHz.

It has been reported that some mariners are experiencing difficulties receiving weather forecasts via NAVTEX, which may be a transmission issue, equipment issue, or combination of both. Be certain your NAVTEX receiver has been properly programmed with proper NAVTEX station and subject identifiers. A minimum of 4 forecasts should be received daily. Both good and poor reception reports, stating your position, date/time(s), and make/model of your NAVTEX receiver to; marine.weather@noaa.gov would be greatly appreciated.

Effective Aug 14, 2012 at 0000 UTC, the U.S. Coast Guard will modify the scheduled broadcast times for several NAVTEX stations. Click HERE for the official U.S. Coast Guard announcement. The new broadcast schedule is also shown below.

Effective Apr 03, 2012 at 1800 UTC the NAVTEX forecasts were reconfigured to limit coverage to within 200 nm of the coasts assigned to New Orleans, Miami and San Juan transmitters. Specifically, the forecast area for the New Orleans transmitter will cover the northern Gulf of Mexico from the Suwanee River, FL to the mouth of the Rio Grande, out 200 nm. The Miami NAVTEX forecast area will cover the waters around the peninsula of Florida from Suwanee River on the Gulf Coast, to Flagler Beach on the Atlantic Coast, out 200 nm. The San Juan forecast area will cover the waters within 200 nm of the San Juan transmitter, to include the Mona Passage and part of the Anegada Passage. This reconfiguration will better conform to the range of the transmitters, provide more detailed information along the immediate coast, and better meet broadcast time constraints.

NAVTEX is a major element of the Global Marine and Distress Safety System (GMDSS). For further information on NAVTEX, the GMDSS, and worldwide NAVTEX schedules, including coverage diagrams, visit the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Telecommunications Information webpage.

NAVTEX receivers which are approved for GMDSS contain an internal printer and cost between $800-$1500. A new generation of NAVTEX receivers intended for non-GMDSS applications such as the recreational community is now entering the marketplace. These receivers include such features as LCD screens and RS-232 output and have a purchase price in the $300-$500 range.

Effective November 30, 1999 at 1800 UTC, the National Weather Service began to issue a new series of forecast products specifically tailored to fit the broadcast ranges of the U.S. Coast Guard NAVTEX transmitters on the CONUS and Puerto Rico. This action was taken as there was insufficient time available to broadcast all existing NWS offshore and coastal marine forecasts within the coverage range of each of these transmitters which resulted in an unacceptably increasing number of missed broadcasts. The new NAVTEX forecast products are a blend of the existing offshore marine forecasts and coastal marine forecasts, however, the inshore portion of these forecasts contain less detail than available in the coastal forecasts. Mariners can continue to obtain NWS coastal marine forecasts by other means including NOAA Weather Radio, USCG MF Voice, USCG VHF Voice, NOAA telephone recordings and the Internet. NWS and the U.S. Coast Guard are working actively to improve the broadcast of marine forecasts via NAVTEX through a combination of product enhancements and technology upgrades.

SITOR (NBDP) is similar in many respects to NAVTEX but does not offer all of the same functionality such as avoiding repeated messages.

A Listing of NWS Marine Products Broadcast via U.S. Coast Guard NAVTEX   is available.

For a complete listing of NWS marine text products (with links) visit the NWS Production Schedule for Marine Text Products webpage.

Refer to NGA Publication 117, which is updated through the Notice to Mariners, for the latest official listing of U.S. Coast Guard and worldwide broadcast schedules. The British Admiralty List of Radio Signals is an excellent reference source for NAVTEX and GMDSS information.

All NWS marine forecasts rely heavily on the Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) program for obtaining meteorological observations.
 
 

Station	Identifier	WX Broadcast Schedule (UTC) Effective August 14, 2012 at 0000 UTC
Adak	X	(Broadcast terminated Dec ‘96)
Kodiak1	J X	0130, 0530, 09302, 1330, 1730, 21302 0350, 0750, 11502, 1550, 1950, 23502
Astoria	W	03402, 0740, 1140, 15402, 1940, 2340
San Francisco	C	0020, 04202, 0820, 1220, 16202, 2020
Cambria	Q	02402, 0640, 1040, 14402, 1840, 2240
Marianas	V	0330, 0730, 1130, 1530, 1930, 2330
Honolulu	O	0220, 0620, 10202, 1420, 1820, 22202
Boston	F	0050, 0450, 08502, 1250, 1650, 20502
Portsmouth	N	02102, 0610, 1010, 14102, 1810, 2210
Charleston	E	0040, 0440, 08402, 1240, 1640, 20402
Miami	A	0000, 0400, 08002, 1200, 1600, 20002
San Juan	R	02502, 0650, 1050, 14502, 1850, 2250
New Orleans	G	0100, 0500, 09002, 1300, 1700, 21002
1. Kodiak also broadcasts weather forecasts during time slots initially allocated to Adak. 2. Routine weather forecasts are broadcast four times per day with these being the normal times when repeats of Notices to Mariners are broadcast in lieu of weather. Weather warnings may be broadcast at any time. The U.S. Coast Guard may on occasion have to defer or shorten the broadcast of a scheduled weather forecast via NAVTEX to ensure delivery of more urgent navigational and safety warnings. NAVTEX receivers must be programmed with proper NAVTEX station and subject identifiers in order to receive weather broadcasts. Effective April 22, 2008 U.S. NAVTEX broadcasts of weather forecasts containing a warning or a Dense Fog Advisory will be broadcast with a Subject Indicator of "B" vs. "E", such that receipt cannot be suppressed on the user's equipment. Mariners are encouraged to include subject indicator "E" in programming their NAVTEX in order to receive routine weather forecasts as well as weather warnings via NAVTEX.