NWP has significantly improved the accuracy of weather forecasts and enabled the development of services specifically for mariners, including routeing advice and forecasts as ECDIS overlays. However, statistics from the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) indicate that the leading cause of total loss of shipping between 1996 and 2010 was weather. Between 2006 and 2010, weather accounted for 45% of total losses.
Numerical weather prediction
The Nautical Institute has launched ‘Numerical Weather Prediction – a practical guide for mariners’, aimed at explaining the benefits and limitations of numerical weather prediction (NWP) so that mariners can get the most out of it and confidently rely on it for safe operations.
