Marine zones for coastal waters in the Gulf of Alaska,
Bering Sea and the Kuskokwim Delta have been reconfigured by the National Weather
Service, with a goal of improved, concise marine weather services for all
users.
Effective Oct. 1, the Anchorage forecast office of the
National Weather Service had renamed, renumbered and realigned several zones,
and added eight new forecast zones as well.
Several zone changes are in name only, while the zone number
remains the same, weather service officials advised.
One of the big changes is splitting up the Cape Dillingham
to Port Heiden area, and adding a specific zone for Bristol Bay coastal waters,
said James Nelson, science and operations officer at the Anchorage office.
The changes have been a work in progress for a couple of
years, and had been out for public review for the last four months.
“We found when we were changing parts of the forecast that
we were splitting them up in these areas, so we made the zones smaller to
highlight the areas better,” Nelson said.
The official announcement of the marine forecast zones
changes is at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notification/scn13-36alaska_marine_zones.htm
An updated zone map shape file containing the new boundaries
for these marine zones is available for download from http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/marinezones.htm
A map showing the existing and additional marine zones is
posted on the WFO Anchorage page at http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/newmarinezones/
For more information, or to comment on the changes, contact
James Nelson, science and operations officer at Anchorage, at 1-907-266-5120,
or pafc-marine.feedback@noaa.gov,
or Louise Fode, marine program manager at the Alaska region headquarters, at
1-907-271-3507, or louise.fode@noaa.gov