I don't really knock NOAA for the day to day stuff up here in Southern New England. They are generally ok for the day to day stuff like sun/rain/wind direction, mostly. Where they fall down IMHO is when there is a real big storm coming, particularly hurricanes/tropical storms and other big blows during the summer season. With their relatively new computer based voice system we don't really get the current details and I would be very worried about having NOAA FM radio broadcasts as my only source of facts under those circumstances. They begin reporting on a storm when it is close to Florida or north of Florida for one coming up the coast. As the storm approaches, all they give you is the location and intensity stuff. They do not attempt to describe the expected trajectory with time, which can be seen on TV or on the NHC web page. I remember back in 1997 when I was sailing out of Maine at the time and we were cruising in the Elizabeth Islands, MV, etc. This was well before I had on-board internet connectivity, TV, cell phone, or really a reliable FM radio. All I had was NOAA. So one day I'm getting the morning brief and they are talking about a TS coming up the coast and expected to make landfall in Southern New England in 2 days !!!! No trajectory was given. So there I was in Hadley's trying to decide where the hell to go to weather whatever this was going to be. Well as I listened more during the day they stopped giving any useful information and started playing over and over these canned instructions on hurricane prep for people on shore !!!! All I got for mariners was "..mariners should seek safe harbor...." And I didn't even know where the damned thing was headed. Finally I managed to reach a National Weather Service office up in MA somewhere from the old pay phone booth at Cuttyhunk and a guy very graciously filled me in on the details and we ended up riding the TS out on a mooring in Cuttyhunk. But NOAA was just useless as the storm approached. This is still their procedure today, as we heard with the storms this summer. This actually happened to me another time earlier when I rode out a near miss hurricane anchored in Menemsha. Again, it was sprung on me with insufficient time to get home. Today of course, like most of us, I get my weather from the internet and local TV while cruising so I can watch the storms develop and move wherever they are going to go day by day from several sources on line. I basically use NOAA as "background music" while I am working on the boat or the log, or with the first cup of coffee in the morning. I understand some boats use NOAA as their only source of information but truthfully I wouldn't recommend that route. If someone were to ask me if the NOAA broadcasts are worth whatever budget they need, I would be hard pressed to defend it, especially inland where TV weather is so available and so much better. But as I said earlier, I don't have a real problem with their day to day forecasts. They seem to be generally ok. But definitely not of much use for big storms, when they are needed most. For what it's worth.....
