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ECMWF model GRIBs: available during the race?

A

AZ Sailor

New member
Per RRC 10.02(e), it is permissible during the race to receive “Weather data commonly referred to as GRIB files, derived without 3rd party manipulation or enhancement[,] from weather models operated by NOAA or analogous agencies of other countries” (emphasis added). The European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts is the European analog to NOAA and the forecasts it produces are generally regarded as superior to those from NOAA’s GFS model.

The ECMWF model is the default for Windy.com, and is used by Predict Wind in development of its proprietary models. In my limited So Cal experience, when the Windy.com and NWS forecasts diverge, Windy.com tends to come out right. The ECMWF model was the only forecast to accurately predict the erratic course of Hurricane Joaquin in 2015, which devastated many Caribbean islands and took out an American cargo ship with its crew of 33.

Has anyone found a way to obtain GRIB files from the ECMWF model “without 3rd party manipulation or enhancement” as the rule requires? I have tried without success to find this searching the www.
 
Last edited:
AZ Sailor said:
Per RRC 10.02(e), it is permissible during the race to receive “Weather data commonly referred to as GRIB files, derived without 3rd party manipulation or enhancement[,] from weather models operated by NOAA or analogous agencies of other countries” (emphasis added).
....
Has anyone found a way to obtain GRIB files from the ECMWF model “without 3rd party manipulation or enhancement” as the rule requires?
Click to expand...


The problem is that ECMWF is not freely-available, therefore access tends to fall under a subscription-required basis (e.g., you pay for it). The cost requirement fails the Communications Plan Preliminary dated 13-Dec-2017 which disallows "For-fee weather...". ECMWF might be great stuff, but if it's not freely-available to everybody then you can't use it on the race course.

If you can find a way to extract and ECMWF sub-area (lat/lon boundary) as a freely-available dataset, that would be of interest.

- rob/beetle
 
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