4 November 2024 - The coral bleaching impact index has been updated for the islands covered by ScubaWeather. The index is the accumulated (sum over 40 years) of Degree Heating Week (DHW) exceeding 1 F. The higher the number the more the corals around the island have been impacted by extreme sea temperatures. There is no island covered by ScubaWeather that hasn't been affected. Grand Abaco island in the Bahamas showed the least increase since January, only a 2 DHW increase. Aruba experienced the largest increase, a 382 DHW increase in ten months. This is equal to the cumulative impact of 40 years at Grand Abaco.
16 September 2024 - Over the past weekend the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shutdown access to the data portal for most products of the numerical ocean model RTOFS, specifically anything below the surface of the ocean. This does not directly affect the ocean related forecasts presented in ScubaWeather - water temperature and currents at the surface - but it has spurred me to develop an alternative access to the European models. I will be testing it out over the next several weeks. You will see hourly forecasts of temperature and currents when you are looking at the Europen models, versus three-hourly forecasts from RTOFS. If you have any questions please use the Contact Us form to drop me a note.
24 January 2024 - The coral bleaching impact index has been updated for the islands covered by ScubaWeather. The index is the accumulated (sum over 40 years) of Degree Heating Week (DHW) exceeding 1 F. The higher the number the more the corals around the island have been impacted by extreme sea temperatures. There is no island covered by ScubaWeather that hasn't been affected, and most of the islands set records during 2023. While the corals in the Florida Keys received a lot of press last year, most of the Caribbean experienced the same impact. Of all the islands ScubaWeather monitors the Galapagos have had the most extreme impact, which many will find surprising. The 1998 El Nino event had a impact double what the Florida Keys experienced.
26 August 2023 - You've heard about coral bleaching, and how it is on the increase. Wondering what the impact is on your favorite place to dive? Check out our newest feature, the Coral Bleaching page that is now part of every dive site. Hover over the Climate in the Navigation bar for each dive site and follow the link.
26 July 2023 - We added Fiji to the ScubaWeather family. Check it out at Fiji.
12 December 2022 - The visibility algorithm has been validated and optimized against in-water visibility observations from the Florida Keys. A big shout out to Elliot Dix and all the folks at Rainbow Reef Dive Center for keeping spectacular records of visibility, wave conditions, winds and currents at their dive sites, going all the way back to 2014. They were invaluable! The visibility estimates Scuba Weather makes using remote satellite data are typically within 15 feet of the actual observed visibility. We think that is pretty good.
19 November 2022 - Tidal currents can be strong, and forecasting when the current peaks is important at many dive sites. ScubaWeather has added a tidal current feature to each of its dive locations. This is an example of very strong tidal currents at the Back Side of the Blue Hole dive site in Andros, Bahamas.
10 November 2022 - ScubaWeather is committed to ocean conservation. A new page, Conservation, was added and provides links to some of the countless worldwide efforts to protect, preserve and promote the health of the ocean and the animals and plants that call it home. We add to the list on a weekly basis.
1-3 November 2022 - I attended the DEMA 2022 Trade Show in Orlando Florida where I talked with dive operators about ScubaWeather. The response was very favorable.
30 May 2022 - To support the work of Dr. Sylvia Earle each day ScubaWeather randomly picks a Hope Spot so you can visit it.