Cruise planning: Marine Forecast from the BSH - unfortunately not yet helpful

The press release reads well: "The new Marine Forecast application from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) shows the current oceanographic and meteorological situation in the German areas at sea." It says there. You can find out about currents, swell, wave height and weather conditions free of charge, it continues.

The whole thing would be well presented graphically and the authority would catch up with the private online weather services. Unfortunately, the reality is different. The preparation, user guidance and presentation are a far cry from well-known services such as Windy.com. On the other hand, you get first-hand information and the cooperation with the German Weather Service promises regionally high-resolution observation and forecast data. This is exactly where the two authorities could score points. After all, free, private services are not usually able to do this. They are almost always based on large-scale and coarser models.

Wind only without direction

An initial test is sobering. Once you have got used to the complicated menu navigation, tidal currents and wave heights can be called up relatively easily. However, the current field is only available for the North Sea and the slow loading times of the page require a lot of patience. The "Meteorology" menu item is even less sophisticated. Only the wind force can be selected there, information on wind direction is missing.

An enquiry to the BSH clarifies the situation: "This is one of the functions that is currently being worked on. Our colleagues want to install an update by the summer that will also allow the wind direction to be displayed," says deputy press officer Merle Mansfeld.

Hopefully, the update will also optimise the loading times of the site.

Under the link https://marineforecast.bsh.de anyone can see the portal's performance for themselves.