All About the Ocean Prediction Center

The Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) provides timely and accurate marine weather warnings and forecasts to protect life and property at sea, while enhancing maritime weather readiness and the economic viability of the maritime community.  OPC forecasters continuously monitor weather over the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans and issue warnings and forecasts out to five days. On average, OPC issues 12,700 warnings each year. This includes wind warnings (gale - storm - hurricane force), heavy freezing spray warnings, and ashfall advisories.

OPC is an integral component of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), located at the National Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (NCWCP) in College Park, Maryland.

OPC is divided into the Ice Services Branch, Ocean Forecast Branch (operational forecasting, warning issuance), and the Ocean Applications Branch (development, support).

Combined, OPC boasts more than 500 years of professional marine weather forecasting experience.

Below is our interactive OPC alma mater map, with alumni spanning the globe from the University of Nairobi, to the University of Reading, to the University of Washington, to the University of Hawaii, and several universities in between.

The Ocean Prediction Center has 5 operational desks that run in 10 hour shifts: the Atlantic Regional, Atlantic High Seas, Pacific Regional, Pacific High Seas, and the Outlook. Operations are 365 days a year and 24x7, including night shifts, holidays, and weekends. A quick overview of each desk follows.

On May 10, 2020, the NOAA component of the U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC) transitioned from the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) to the National Weather Service as OPC's Ice Services Branch.

OPC provides Impact-Based Decision Support (IDSS) to customers and partners on a routine basis, including spot forecasts in support of USCG search and rescue missions, spot forecasts from NOAA research vessels, and spot forecasts in support of USCG investigations into derelict or disabled vessels. Spot forecast requests are typically received in  the  Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) .

OPC issues a once per week briefing to both USCG Districts 5 and 11, and sometimes daily in high impact weather. The USCG then forwards the briefings to the GovDelivery email system, which is distributed to over 2,100 addresses.

OPC has been requested to deliver on-site marine briefings in support of incident commanders to several high-profile sailboat races off both coasts, a few include: The Annapolis to Newport race, Annapolis to Bermuda race, The Pacific Cup (San Francisco to Honolulu), Victoria BC to Maui race, and the Transpac race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

The Ice Services Branch also routinely engages in decision support services, providing the USCG District 9 with ice concentration and estimated ice thickness charts 3x/week. These support USCG asset management across the lakes, and supports facilitation of cargo shipping. The USNIC also provides tailored and local scale support, for example ensuring maritime awareness for NPS employees as they surveyed wildlife on Isle Royale National Park, and to the USCG ensuring maritime awareness and safety of navigation as they escorted commercial vessels through Whitefish Bay.

OPC also maintains a robust Outreach program with multiple organizations, international partners, and other NOAA/NWS forecast offices. Some of our Outreach opportunities include staffing boat shows, WFO visits along both the East and West coasts, the annual Mariner Decision workshop, annual symposiums with Eastern and Western Regions and their WFOs, and ship and Port Meteorological Officer (PMO) visits. We've even been able to send forecasters on board NOAA P3 flights into hurricanes and intense winter extratropical cyclones.

We routinely send forecasters and analysts to annual AMS and NWA meetings, and OPC has chaired Extreme Maritime Weather sessions within the AMS conference.

We also maintain a close relationship with the Maritime Institute of Maritime Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGs) in Baltimore, Maryland, providing routine in-person and virtual forecaster presentations and briefings. MITAGS is one of the OPC's, and NWS's, Weather Ready Nation Ambassadors.

OPC is one of the few places in the world in which you get a chance to practice true synoptics. With forecast domains spanning 1000's of nautical miles you will get a chance to analyze the entirety of extra-tropical low pressure systems from genesis to dissipation. Our domain is so big we need FOUR geostationary satellites to see everything! We have a rigorous schedule that ensures you will never be bored on shift with hard product deadlines that must be met every few hours (or else the mariner's simply never receive the product). Do things like 90 knot winds, 50 foot seas, synoptic meteorology, satellite imagery, or traveling to workshops and conferences interest you? These are things we see and participate in all the time.