New 'Channel Conditions' web app launched

Ocean conditions can make or break a channel swim. Experienced marathon swimmers know to bookmark the local NOAA buoy for an upcoming swim – like Station 46217 for Anacapa Island swims – and are known to obsessively check the latest readings as the big day approaches.

For all our swimmer-meteorologists out there, we’ve added a new web app that automatically brings the most swimming-relevant NOAA weather data to your fingertips, in a convenient graphical interface. For the initial beta version, the app has two features:

• A map-based interface for viewing the latest marine weather in the channel.
• An interactive map showing the latest readings on water temp, air temp, wind, and waves for each of ten buoys located around the Channel Islands region.

Please let us know if you have any feedback on the beta version. More features on the way soon!