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What's New: How Your Forecast Is Changing

By Ben - Published on 23rd January 2009 | Viewed 113999 times.

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STAR RATINGS



The old ratings didn't take into account the direction of the swell. Crucial you might think? Well we were working on the basis that with a little local knowledge you could use the rating to find a beach not listed that might be on with a great swell, even if it didn't hit the main beach. The problem was that strong local winds could create a swell never heading towards your spot and show a couple of stars, or a low period wind swell might obscure a small long period gem. With the new system we DO include the swell direction AND we run through all the swells running. A 5ft windswell might get no stars but if there's a sneaky 3ft of long period stuff running under it we'll spot that and the rating will let you know. It's still intended as a guide, but it should be a much more trustworthy one.
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This article has been given an average rating of 3.5 from 856 votes.
Comments
 
Archived Comments
millwalldave805 days ago +2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
i theres a major amount of us sea fishermen who use your site and i must say before i got told about it me and my mate would travel about 3hours there and back [east coast of scotland] to find we couldnt even fish as waves were far to rough on the very small area we could fish for sea bass.however since finding you we have saved many saturday trips ruined and went fly fishing or course fishing elsewhere instead so thanks very much heres a gratefull fisherman.surf on lads
SirSurfsAlot875 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Ive been using MSW for years now, this is the first time Ive seen these comments though and I had to login and give my 10 cents. If there is one thing that annoys me, its people who get something given to them for free, then pick holes and criticise it, on the public forum nonetheless because sending an email to the right people might actually get your point accross without black marking those good people responsible for providing the information you obviously have paid so much attention to that you you've compared it to the location and spotted the difference. The plain and simple point being, as theyve already stated below, and many times, this is not an exact indication of what you're going to be paddling out into on Monday morning, I knew this about 1 hour after first coming accross the site roughly 7 years ago, the reason I knew this was because I took the time to freakin read about it. My guess is that you dont post random comments on forums about the NOAA's forecast, so please dont do it here for everyone to see. I understand your opinions matter, but send details about these things to people who can discuss it with you, not on the public comment boxes. These guys work very hard to provide you what you take for granted, show some respect. As for the forecasts, i find them very accurate a majority of the time, its about understanding the break you're at and making judgements and comparison of information, but like any forecast, its not an exact art, which MSW openly tell you they. Have some sense people and read more instead of putting your energy into negative thoughtless comments. Ok, rant over :)
Island Boy860 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
I totally agree...This site is a big help to me..Gives me optimium stats to plan my surf time around a crazy schedule of work , kids and school..And as you said dude..it's free..keep it up Magic Seaweed,I appreciate you guys ..I lived in the the island for almost 20 years and there you just needed to go to the hightop of a mountain and look for lines on the horizon..Not the case in Florida where days are few and far between..thanks again..
surfgaru908 days ago -1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Your 5-day forecast shows today and the next few days for Sonoma Co. in norcal as 10 @ 8sec while just below it you show buoy info from 15 miles out as 6@8sec. which more accurately reflects the NOAA forcast for the area. Why such a big discrepency between the two? I surfed today and it was about 6@8, 10@8 would have been some crazy conditions! surfgaru
surfgaru908 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
surfgaru908 days ago +2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Jonnysprmanager924 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
For the north of Ireland i find that your forecasts especially in the summer to be way of the mark. eg. for Portrush. your rating does not seem to take into accound the swell direction. A 200 -250 degree swell is very unlikey to refract around Donegal (northwest coast) and give us any swell but quite often it is given as 2 - 3 stars. more often than not it is flat in these conditions. It is quite funny to see all the fair weather surfers following your every prediction as though it was gospel.
Ben Freeston920 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Perhaps we need to say it more clearly but I certainly have every time we've written about the rating that it's a rating for the swell not the beach. We do now take swell direction into account but the specifics for each spot are just too precise to be 100% authoritative and we wouldn't pretend it was. You can imagine running a service for only one spot the complications, my local break can double in size for just an hour on a small longer period swell on a pushing mid tide. Likewise even swell direction is a gross simplification for the actual state of the sea which has multiple waves and swells running across a spread of directions. Where a straight west swell might not work a wide bandwidth west might. All these factors across 1000+ spots and the rating is really designed as a guide to the better swells, if you can see that something interesting is on the way you can use your local knowledge to pick the spot and time and drill down into the site here and we have a huge range of tools to help you do that. In the same way that some people using the site are only interested in the forecast at this level there are others content to stick with height, period and direction, less still drilling down into the full spectral breakdown. Our aim has to be to provide some kind of service at whatever level you want your information, but personally the most rewarding bit is delivering products designed for those surfers who are really at the core of the sport whether in ability of at least in passion for getting to the right place at the right time. We're already running a new 16 day long range tool in test mode and I hope the spin of from this is the kind of forecast that might not reach the masses but works for anyone clued up enough to dig deeper...
brisay933 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
tides level not accurate in north west of ireland.....
limonsurf969 days ago +2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
As a part-time resident of Pto. Limon, Costa Rica I find your reports to be so close to the mark that I generally plan my trips with data I get from you. While there, I crosscheck and MSW is super close to my eyeballs.
spacemanskip1015 days ago +3 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Thanks for this article but can you please indicate what is the maximum number of stars? Is it 4? 5? 10? Also, what is the difference between a grey star and a white star? I've searched everywhere I can imagine and don't see an explanation of that. Could you maybe consider putting up a legend of the surf report icons or maybe a link to a legend page?
PSALM 77:19941 days ago +1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
you want the dark blue stars; the grey ones mean swell but poor wind/ conditions potential; the dark blue ones mean more favorable conditions. The stars are dead on for my area pretty much every time I see those (doing other forecasting of course) and go they have been dead on the dark blue ones have even underestimated how good it was relative to my area which is often rideable but rarely exceptionally good UNFORTUNATELY which accounts for my sub par photos and videos I have posted but surfing is fun large or small so I post anyway and take the criticism anyway DARK BLUE STARS
Garfield2009934 days ago +2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Perfect Idea - that´s what I just want to ask as well... Gerd
Easily:HyPn0tiZ3d1024 days ago +2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
plz keep in mind gentlemen that any change in the gulf is drastic, one or two feet is a huge difference, its practicaly one giant lake
grajagan1068 days ago +7 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
hmn....this good idea, thanks
Bruno1068 days ago +6 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
HI Ben! i have an idea to improve the Photos section. the idea is to show the conditions of the spot forecasted for that day, with the stars, wind, direction and everything.. just the line of that precise hour. i just think it would be good for us to learn more about how swells and wind hit to a specific spot, and for you, to improve the forecast basing on the photo. although it might be not that accurate, because someone might miss-date the photo. but lets hope most pics show the right info.
Bruno1071 days ago -9 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
oh, and i forgot.. the tides TIDES . your page is the WORST when it comes to tides (only in ecuador, i dont know of any other spots) before it was the tides that where way too far from reality and the sun time, now i see you fixed the sun time. but the tides seem to be the same every day.. looking forward for you to fix that. thanks thats all, peace!
Bruno1071 days ago +14 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
i thank you, the forecast for playas, Ecuador has improved a lot... just one minor bug the swell next week is gonna be 2.7m, (overhead) but the detailed hourly forecast says #waist high# i guess it confused it with 2.7feet. besides that everything is perfect. keep up the good work, cheers
chloe1077 days ago -2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
I was also wondering were the star rating system has gone. i cant find out what they mean and i need to as i have used the star rating system to illustrate consistency as part of my dissertation. this now jeapardises my entire dissertaton and therefore my degree. If you could please put the old one back it would be greatly appreciated.
hardcore1089 days ago -9 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
where can i find out what the star ratings mean...all I had to do before was click on the star, that does not work anymore!
HazzaD1101 days ago -20 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Comment Voted Below Threshold
Mr Struggle1104 days ago -1 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Need to see buoys 62029 and 62081 Why have they been taken out of the site? Cheers Denny
Ben Freeston1094 days ago -16 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Hi Denny - nothings been removed - just the maps on the local page are a little more 'zoomed in' and they're easiest accessed on the main wavebuoy page here: http://magicseaweed.com/UK-Ireland-Wave-Buoys/1/
stuie_m1106 days ago +51 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Guys, the new pressure charts seem to 'jump' around a bit from time to time - the animation isn't smooth, it's like it skips a day if you see what I mean?
Ben Freeston1106 days ago +30 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Two possibilities I think - either the new charts (being larger) are loading slower for you than they should, either using the smaller charts or waiting for the second 'loop' should fix this. Other possibility is your browser is storing some charts from an old run in it's cache and mixing them up - hitting CTRL and clicking Refresh *should* sort that - let me know if that fixes it....
stuie_m1103 days ago -3 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Seems like you might be right, clearing the cache. Can't reproduce it now.
stuie_m1095 days ago Unrated Rate Positive Rate Negative
Does seem to be a caching issue, and it does still happen, is there anyway around the user having to clear their cache emporary files?
Ben Freeston1109 days ago +31 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
You'll notice over the next few hours we've updated all the forecast with some new 'advanced option' under the main buttons in the middle of the forecast page for your local beach. The 'vertical' view just shows you the same information as before with a new layout. The multiple swells view shows a breakdown off swells for every hour. This can be used to spot hidden groudswells, separate north swells from south and really get a better idea of what's heading to the beach.
bagpuss1111 days ago +12 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Thanks guys for all your efforts which have led to you producing a totally outstanding site! Bude
RHODRI1112 days ago -12 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
whats happened to the stormrider forecast and guides?
Flop1112 days ago -38 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Comment Deleted
stuie_m1113 days ago +2 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Me again, couple of things. The new charts don't indicate when they were last updated and using a scroll mouse in the Start Time field doesn't work like it used to. Loving it though.
Ben Freeston1112 days ago -23 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Comment Voted Below Threshold
oj1113 days ago -12 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Hi, I'm using Google's Chrome browser & the site doesn't look well. Love your work!
Ben Freeston1113 days ago +19 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
It's the same issue as below - you just need to hold CTRL and click refresh.
hubbardstephen1114 days ago +7 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
I don't know if it was just last weekend's forecasts but for west wales those forecasts predicted were way over exaggerated by over 5 feet. Well over the normal trend i thought. I've been using the beta version for a few weeks now and haven't noticed this before. I did not compare other west country forecasts. Were these the same?
Ben Freeston1113 days ago +16 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Last weekends swell WAS one of the largest of the year to date - but as always the complex UK and Irish coastline has a way of making it difficult for the best of models - I think both lowres and hires will have overcalled it for some locations in what is unusual circumstances.
allsorts1114 days ago +33 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Hi, The site doesn't look very good on safari - just incase you're not aware of it. Cheers!
Ben Freeston1114 days ago +38 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
We've been developing the new version in Safari and Google Chrome (effectively the same thing) so either it just looks bad or hopefully what might have happened is that your browser has cached some files from the old site. This will either clear itself or if you can clear your cache it should fix it. Otherwise let me know what's not working right and I can look into it...
Heb Mike1115 days ago -17 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Hey where has the DETAILED choice gone for a break down of wind and swell Cheers mike
Ben Freeston1115 days ago -9 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Hey Mike, there's a button for the detailed, the tides, spectral, lowres or highres data etc above the main forecast on the forecast page.
mugdiver1115 days ago +51 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
I second the request for a SST animation over a period of time. I would like to see an archive of the SST over several years if possible. Apart from that keep up the brilliant work. You help not only surfers but anyone that goes to sea. Regards Patrick from Mauritius
Ben Freeston1115 days ago +23 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Thanks very much Patrick - we'll definitely put together more SST information, I also want to add detailed historic temps to each spot for travel planning.
sam_fujiyama1115 days ago +18 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
There's something wrong with the Thurso forecasts, the numbers must be for somewhere else.
Ben Freeston1115 days ago +22 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Cheers for that - I've tweaked the location we choose for the forecast data just slightly and it looks A LOT more sensible now - huge long period swell heading towards the coast not tiny short period heading away. Sorry and thanks again for the shout.
dza4mile1114 days ago +10 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
cool
dza4mile1115 days ago -9 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Why do the charts default to the North Sea view, when I select my spot in Wales? When I change them to UK & Ireland view, and then go into a detailed forecast, the charts again default to the North Sea view and default to this view every time. I want to see the swell arriving in from the Atlantic. Quite annoying.
Nick MSW1115 days ago -7 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Sorry, that is a bug. We're working on it now..
Ben Freeston1115 days ago +17 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
That should be fixed now - thanks for letting me know...
stuie_m1115 days ago +34 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
. . . or even 'below' instead of 'above' - I give up.
stuie_m1115 days ago -13 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
. . . and it would be good to be able to edit your messages so you can remove spelling mistakes and typos like those above ;-) 'or' instead of 'of' and 'countries' instead of 'counties'!
Nick MSW1115 days ago +26 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
Yes, I agree...
stuie_m1115 days ago -14 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
There are some issues with the start dates on the charts, and the world view of pressure is difficult to see because of all the black lines (the land should be shaded maybe removing the outlines or the counties), but it’s looking fantastic. Still think it would be good to show an animation of the sea temperature through the year, so you can decide whether to take your shorts or winter suit when you go on your travels.
Nick MSW1115 days ago +6 Rating Rate Positive Rate Negative
The chart start dates we know about, it happens when you flip back from sst charts to something else, we're on it. The pressure chart thing sounds like a good idea, I will have a look at that. The historic SST animation is something we've wanted to do for a while but haven't found the time. Suffice to say that it's on the list...
 
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