New Waves & Tides feature.
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Keep working on the new "waves and tide" feature! It would be great if the app could show slacks as well as floods and ebbs at current stations. Regarding the current data, where is that coming from? Compared to NOAA's current data for Deception Pass in Washington state, for example, Windy.com seems rather different both in the times of flood and ebb events and the speed of the current at each event. If the difference is intentional, please explain why. One other question about this new feature. Why can't the icons for flood (F) and ebb (E) remain the same when zooming in. As it is now these helpful indicators change to vague ship icons at closer zooms. Sure, at closer zooms you can see the current direction and speed on the graph below but wouldn't it be more informative to leave the icon as a letter, or maybe show the letter in a direction arrow with the speed next to or inside it (positive for flood and negative for ebb)? That would convey a lot of useful info at a glance about current stations in an area, and still allow users to see a graph of a specific location by clicking on it.
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@dougpalm Hi, can you please explain what exactly are your questions and according to what topics? Any screenshots of these features, you are asking about, would be great.
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Rather than make a new post, I thought I'd add on here.
I echo @dougpalm about adding currents (where available).
I would also love to see the ability to choose a tide station that isn't necessarily the closest to a spot. Also in the Puget Sound area and an easy example is a kite spot on Camano Island.
The closest tide station is at the Stanwood/Stillaquamish river mouth, but the more accurate tide station is at Kayak point, a few miles south and technically further from the kite spot. See below for the spot, current, and preferred tide station.
Being able to choose (maybe a drop down or visual menu on the map?) between spots would be great.
Thanks for all the hard work (and sorry for the terrible MS paint handwriting)!
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@Ondřej-Šutera
Thank you for working to present tide and current information in addition to wind and waves! I have some questions about the source of the tides and current information Windy uses and how Windy presents that information.First, where is the tide and current information coming from? I’m interested in accurate tidal current information for sea kayaking and the results I’m seeing from Windy are different from the results for the same location, day, and time from NOAA’s Current Predictions. Is Windy using a different source, and if so, what source? If Windy is using NOAA’s Current Predictions, what typical depth is it drawing the information from (close to the surface, close to the middle of the water column, close to the bottom of the water column)? At many current station locations there are different results depending on the depth the measurements are taken so I’m wondering if this may explain why the results in Windy sometimes seem to be different from what I’m expecting. I tend to use NOAA Current Predictions that are closest to the surface.
Second, is there a reason the current icons (F for flood, S for slack, and E for ebb) have to switch from their helpful letter designations to a generic boat icon on closer zooms? The boat icon is not helpful to me at closer zooms because it appears to represent either a tide station or a current station and I have to click on it to find out which. At wider zoom levels the icon changes to reveal what it is and that is very helpful. Why does the icon have to shift from a helpful F,S or E current state indicator or tide state indicator into a generic boat icon when you zoom in? Also, why does the app sometimes mix up the display of tide and current data, i.e. presenting tide data when the icon is for a current station?
Third, when trying to view current data for a location, say Deception Pass current station PUG1701, sometimes I get a nice banner display across the top showing current events (e.g. slack before ebb, ebb, slack before flood, flood) and other times I see a graph at the bottom of the screen showing the floods, slacks, and ebbs. Is there a consistent way to make the app display the current data in one of these ways or the other on demand (e.g. banner or graph)? It seems to be hit or miss the way it works now. Sometimes when I click a current icon I get the graph and other times I get the current state banner.
Fourth, sometimes when I select a current station I get a tide graph instead of a current graph. When this happens if is frustrating because tide level and tidal current are two different things. In the case of the Deception Pass current station this is especially odd because there is no tide station there, only current station PUG1701.
Fifth, while at wider zoom levels the F,S,E current station icons are helpful, it would be very useful if instead of a round shape the icon could be an arrow showing the current state, direction, and speed of the current at the selected time interval. That way for a particular time interval one could tell at a glance which way the current is predicted to be running and how fast as well as the current state (F,S,E). It would also be helpful if the current icons did not change to a generic boat icon at closer zooms. It's more helpful to see the state info F,S,E (and direction and speed indications right on the map if that's possible).
Here is an image showing the problem with Windy displaying tide data when a current station is selected (in this case, Deception Pass PUG1701):
Here is an example of Windy displaying data for the current station at Deception Pass with different results from the NOAA Current Predictions website for the same events, dates, and times:
Here is what NOAA shows for the same events, date and time as the previous picture above:
Here is a different view of the same Windy current station showing results in the graph instead of a s a banner of events at the top. Note the numbers are different from the NOAA results shown above. Also, It would be helpful to know how to reliably switch between the two display modes.
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@dougpalm TidesChart is another good source :)
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@Ondřej-Šutera Hopefully you’ve had a chance to look over my responses to your question, as well as the screen shots that go with them. Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy Holidays to you and yours!
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@Caefix Thank you for the suggestion. I use a number of different sites and apps for tide and current information along with weather forecasts. These include NOAA’s tide, current, and marine weather prediction tools; DeepZoom; Navionics Boating; AyeTides (just for tides and currents); and now Windy.com. I tried the website you suggested but it does not appear to show tidal currents at all, just tides and weather. Can you explain where to find tidal current information on the site you suggested?
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@dougpalm Hi, I am sorry about the delay with any reaction to your previous message. According to info of certain layer (for example currents), you can get all info about the layer and source in the infobox, available for all layers:
If we talk about our new tides, it is possible to check the source at the end of the forecast detail here:
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I am not part of the development team but if I understand correctly what the data sources of tide and currents are on Windy, I would say that there are 3 which were introduced historically in this order:
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The first development concerned the tide and currents on the coast. They are provided at local official tide and current stations
https://community.windy.com/topic/4841/tide-forecast-on-windy.
They are displayed when selecting Tides in the list of map items of interest.
Only available in some countries. In USA they are displayed at NOAA's tide gauges and flood stations. -
Current and tidal current maps covering the globe come from CMEMS (Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service). Tidal currents data is based on the variation of sea surface altimetry measured by satellites. They are likely underestimated in some areas and therefore require some attention for navigation. They are available as Currents and Tidal currents in the list of layers.
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The most recent development is the addition of tides across the globe, data provided by WorldTides.info. They are available at a point forecast, at bottom of the Waves & Tides table.
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@dougpalm 😂 Lol. I was only aware of the adj. current=at the present time, not the subst. current=flow, flux, streaming.
⛈Thx to the other responders,
🍺🥨 greetings from Bavaria. -
@Ondřej-Šutera many thanks for your response. Good to know how to find the sources. And a good reminder that one should not rely on a single source of tide and tidal current data! I’m in the habit of always cross-checking results against the NOAA TIDE PREDICTIONS and NOAA CURRENT PREDICTIONS sites as well as factoring in the effects of weather, wind, river flows, and other influences on tides and tidal currents.
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@Caefix thanks for noting that. Like many folks in the sea kayaking community, I tend to use the shorthand term “current” to refer to the horizontal movement of water, be it influenced by the action of tides or river flow.
