1. Great Lakes NOAA/NWS (VOS) Program
Ron Williams
Port Meteorological Officer, Duluth, MN

2. Port of Duluth… busiest of all GL Ports
Port of Duluth… busiest of all GL Ports. Iron ore, Coal, Grain from the Plains. Half dozen ships a day during the shipping season. GL PMO travels around Lakes to visit different ships and CG entities. Numerous ships from overseas to load Grain on Lake Superior at Duluth and Thunder Bay.

3. DMAWDS Web Weather www.weather.gov/dmawds
Low bandwidth weather information and reporting through DMAWDS. Developed in 2006 by WFO CLE/MQT to accommodate a large web user source of Lake Carrier Ships.

4. DMAWDS Weather Products
Low Bandwidth maps and forecast products have served the Maritime Fleet for the past few years. This system has been migrated to HQ under NIDS in 2013 for improved stability.

5. DMAWDS weather input migrated to NIDS from WFO CLE in 2013
DMAWDS weather input migrated to NIDS from WFO CLE in Stable platform for ships to input a weather observation. System has worked well and gets forecasters real time weather data.

6. Turboweb on the Lakes
Currently have three ships that are utilizing Turboweb. Works quite well for ships that have a cell phone connection only for communication. They can take a weather observation and then dump the obs when in cell phone range. Main issues are dealing with metric system… the Lakes are still utlizing imperial. No MB or meters ever.

7. Great Lakes VOS Observations
VOS submitted weather observations by year. Success over the past few years with DMAWDS and ships with Automated Reporting has drastically improved participation. Averaging 250 to 300 submitted observations per day during the shipping season – Mar through Jan. ~ 70 ships are active on the GL VOS Program.
Recorded Observations

8. Great Lakes NDBC Observations
NDBC buoys – NWS Regional weather sensors – NOS – University Research Buoys – SeaGrant. All very well utlized by Mariners around the Lake. I spend quite a bit of time working with WFO’s and NDBC on the QC of these sites. We are also working with Mariners with the addition of buoys and weather sites for areas of need.

9. Great Lakes Marine Portal
Great Lakes Marine Portal – Update – Creating a one-stop shop for mariners. Widely utilized on the GL. Currently we are undergoing an update to this website to accommodate user needs. This has our current NDFD grid forecasts graphically and text, as well as ice forecasts.

10. GLERL CoastWatch Great Lakes
Our friends down in Ann Arbor at the Great Lakes Education Research Laboratory have put this handy website together to see all BBXX observations on the lakes. I use this daily to QC obs and also see what other sensors are operational and non operational.

11. Great Lakes WFO’s
Forecast office collaboration with shipping community for Near Shore/Open Water Forecast coverage areas. 11 WFO’s along the Great Lakes providing Marine Forecasts.

12. Weather Instruments
Aging weather instruments on the Great Lakes… Many ships are 75 years or older. Nimbus style temp sensors put into place in the 80s.. F420 wind systems were installed years ago. No parts available. RM Young systems for wind have been installed most ships. Older Weather Bureau barometers still on ships.

13. VOS Awards
Capt. Happy with his VOS Award. Has provided much incentive over the years… Ships are competitive across their fleets. They take much pride in doing a great job may it be navigating the ship to a dock or taking a ship weather observation. Our Awards in incentives have proven their worth in gold over the years. The past few years we have offered nothing.

14. Where are we going on the Lakes?
Improved internet. More ships and more observations.
Auto Observations expanded. Currently eight ships are submitting hourly.
Expanded Canadian Fleet. Fully supporting Algoma and Canadian Steamship Lines for VOS.
Improved weather products along the Lakes.

15. Winter Challenges

16. Ice into June 2014
Weather equipment really takes a beating. Broken wind instruments and temp sensors. Constant battle each spring after lay-up season.