marine-forecast_skill

Overview

This skill provides marine and sailing weather briefings using Open‑Meteo’s free APIs. It combines marine (waves, swell, sea temperature, currents, tides) and weather (wind, gusts, air temp, pressure, visibility) data to produce structured, global sailing reports without an API key. Outputs are formatted for quick decision making: current conditions, hourly or daily forecasts, tide estimates, and a simple sailing assessment.

How this skill works

The skill queries two Open‑Meteo endpoints: the Marine API for sea state, swell, sea surface temperature, currents and tides, and the Weather API for wind, gusts, air temperature and atmospheric conditions. It merges both JSON responses into a single briefing. It converts numeric directions to compass points, evaluates Beaufort/wave thresholds, and flags warnings (small craft, gale) based on the combined data.

When to use it

• Prepare a departure or passage plan with current sea state and wind forecasts
• Get an hourly breakdown when timing tides, currents or departure windows
• Generate a 3–16 day outlook for trip planning or regatta strategy
• Check tide timing and approximate high/low from sea level time series
• Assess safety for activities: sailing, diving, fishing, swimming, or surfing

Best practices

• Always provide latitude, longitude and IANA timezone for precise results
• Combine marine current+wave data with weather wind data for a full picture
• Use current parameters for quick checks and daily/hourly for planning detail
• Interpret sea level hourly array to find tide maxima/minima — API returns raw sea level (tide+pressure)
• For harbor/coastal questions, be cautious: grid resolution reduces accuracy near shore

Example use cases

• One‑line current conditions: sea state, swell, wind, air & sea temperature, sky visibility and a sailing assessment
• Hourly passage planning: 3‑day hourly wind, waves, currents and sea level to choose an optimal departure
• Tide check: 72‑hour sea_level_height_msl series to derive next high and low tide times
• Regatta briefing: daily maxima for wave height, dominant wave direction and peak wind gusts
• Diving suitability: sea temp, swell height/period and visibility to decide go/no‑go