You can download FREE marine weather forecast GRIB files below. They are updated 4x daily at 0015, 0615, 1215, 1815 GMT and are for a 7 day duration. They are based on the National Weather Service, NOAA, Wave Watch III model yielding highly accurate forecasts. These GRIB files are compressed for low bandwidth using bzip2 format and take up less than 100 kb. All of my navigation laptops come with the software to unzip and display them. Out at sea, you could use something like a Garmin inReach to provide an internet connection to download them.
Even better, you can also customize the area you wish to download by using the xyGrib software, which is awesome! This way, you get an even higher detail level, and more customization.
Free marine weather GRIB files download
| US & Canada West Coast | wind | wave |
| Atlantic US & Caribbean | wind | wave |
| Atlantic Canada | wind | wave |
| Caribbean & Gulf of Mexico | wind | wave |
| Drake Passage | wind | wave |
| East Atlantic | wind | wave |
| Great Lakes | wind | wave |
| Northern Europe | wind | wave |
| Argentina & Chile | wind | wave |
| South Africa | wind | wave |
| New Zealand | wind | wave |
| Mediterranean | wind |
| Scandinavia | wind | wave |
| Barents Sea | wind | wave |
| Baffin Bay | wind | wave |
| West Alaska | wind | wave |
| Vancouver, BC | wind | wave |
| Central North Pacific | wind | wave |
| Central South Pacific | wind | wave |
| Central Pacific | wind | wave |
| West Pacific | wind | wave |
| Chile & Peru | wind | wave |
| Central America | wind | wave |
| South Atlantic | wind | wave |
| Central Atlantic | wind | wave |
| Madagascar | wind | wave |
| Indian Ocean | wind | wave |
| North Indian Ocean | wind | wave |
| Kerguelen Islands South Indian Ocean | wind | wave |
| South Australia | wind | wave |
| Indonesia & Australia | wind | wave |
| Indonesia & New Zealand | wind | wave |
| North Japan | wind | wave |
The forecasts above courtesy of GlobalMarineNet, PredictWind, and NOAA. This is also an excellent resource for detailed Europe forecast files.
Free Sea Surface Temperature
Some of my clients who buy my navigation laptops have asked me about where they can get free Sea Surface Temperature (SST) for commercial fishing, and other applications. Therefore, I’ve made page which lists various sources and options for SST. I will try to update it as new sources become available. Please view this information here.
Need a system to load these into, or can’t figure out how to use them? Please contact me!
Free marine weather over radio
- There’s a way of getting marine weather directly from NOAA weather satellites, as demonstrated here.
- On my tablet systems, you can receive weather via HF radio by using this app.
- On my Toughbook systems, you can use JVComm32 demo version for free.
No subscription costs! However, check the coverage area.