Buoyed on the Net

[Sam]

Local weather specialist helps boaters surf for latest information

Weather information is only a mouse click away for boaters who use a new weather Web site recently launched by the National Weather Service.

Boaters can access site-specific weather information along the southeastern coast on National Weather Service - Carolinas Coast by selecting a buoy, weather station frequency or map. One map shows color-coded small-craft advisories and freeze watches; another shows temperature charts for offshore waters.

"So if I wanted to see the weather off the Charleston or the Southport coast," said John Olesniewicz of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, "I would just click on a button or two on the Web site screen" and the right map with the weather features listed appears.

Olesniewicz, a weather specialist known as JohnO, helped devise user friendly operating systems for the Web site.

The data comes from buoys, satellites, weather stations such as the one on Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier in Wrightsville Beach and other sources the weather service uses for forecasts, Olesniewicz said.

Olesniewicz' duties with the Coast Guard Auxiliary's Hampstead Flotilla 10-9 keep him sharply aware of boaters' and mariners' needs. Recently selected to teach a 16-hour course on weather for auxiliary members, he was an ideal candidate to advise on the project.

"The problem we solved was which data to pull together and, importantly, how to display it on the Web site," said Olesniewicz, a member of the Coastal Marine Advisory Committee to the Weather Service office in Wilmington.

The site was about a year and a half in the making.

Steve Pfaff, senior weather forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, gathered weather and Web site specialists from the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Center for Marine Science and the University of South Carolina to join forces on the project.

Originally meant for North and South Carolinas' coast, the Web site launch was delayed for about three months because the Wilmington office had to get approval from headquarters in Washington.

"They liked it so much they decided that it should 'go national,'" Olesniewicz said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration decided to extend the Web site's coverage all the way to Florida.

On April 2, the Weather Service presented the universities involved with Public Service Awards for their efforts with Carolinas Coast.

In the future, Olesniewicz wants users to have access to location-specific forecasts. Historical data can be accessed going back a week or so, he said.

Still labeled an experimental Web site, its designers hope they can continue to increase accessibility. A survey link on the site invites user suggestions.

But the new Web site may lose some of the instruments that make it so useful. A number of buoys and pier-based stations may be pulled out of the water because of funding cuts at the federal level. That could hurt scientists and mariners, Olesniewicz said.

"They need accurate data," he said. "Without accurate data, the ability to provide timely weather and ocean conditions is severely degraded."

A buoy off Sunset Beach in Brunswick County could be removed as early as this month.

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