An Advisory About Small Craft Advisories

[jimh]

The folks at NOAA announced recently they plan to revert to use of the name "Small Craft Warning" from "Small Craft Advisory."

The announcement was written in extraordinarily difficult to read language. I took a sample paragraph and submitted it to an on-line readability scoring website. The language came back with readability = D. The grade level was marked as year 15.8, fourth-year university level. It shouldn't need a university graduate reading level to explain a name change involving only one word.

And if several paragraphs on a website weren't enough, NOAA has an 10-page PDF document to explain in more detail.

The irony in the change is that, as far as I can remember, the "Weather Bureau" (as it was known back in the 1950's) was already using the name "Small Craft Warning" for their alerts about rough weather and seas for small boats. They probably changed "warning" to "advisory" when some government lawyers decided that "warning" was too strong or sent the wrong message or created unjustified worry, or produced a liability or who knows what.

[Phil T]

There is a link to share your feedback on this proposed change.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VZGX6BF

[jimh]

An interesting aspect of the "Small Craft Advisory" (SCA) from NOAA, which I did not realize until just now, is the geographic dependence on the qualifying conditions. The wind and wave conditions that elicit an SCA are not uniform for every area. Here is a breakdown of those dependencies from NOAA:

Small Craft Advisory (SCA): An advisory issued by coastal and Great Lakes Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) for areas included in the Coastal Waters Forecast or Nearshore Marine Forecast (NSH) products. Thresholds governing the issuance of small craft advisories are specific to geographic areas. A Small Craft Advisory may also be issued when sea or lake ice exists that could be hazardous to small boats. There is no precise definition of a small craft. Any vessel that may be adversely affected by Small Craft Advisory criteria should be considered a small craft. Other considerations include the experience of the vessel operator, and the type, overall size, and seaworthiness of the vessel.

Eastern (ME to SC, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario) - Sustained winds or frequent gusts ranging between 25 and 33 knots (except 20 to 25 knots, lower threshold area dependent, to 33 knots for harbors, bays, etc.) and/or seas or waves 5 to 7 feet and greater, area dependent.

Central (MN to OH) - Sustained winds or frequent gusts (on the Great Lakes) between 22 and 33 knots inclusive, and/or seas or waves greater than 4 feet.

Southern (GA to TX and Caribbean) - Sustained winds of 20 to 33 knots, and/or forecast seas 7 feet or greater that are expected for more than 2 hours.

Western (WA to CA) - Sustained winds of 21 to 33 knots, and/or wave heights exceeding 10 feet (or wave steepness values exceeding local thresholds).

Alaska (AK) - Sustained winds or frequent gusts of 23 to 33 knots. A small craft advisory for rough seas may be issued for sea/wave conditions deemed locally significant, based on user needs, and should be no lower than 8 feet.

Pacific (HI, Guam, etc) - Sustained winds 25 knots or greater and seas 10 feet or greater; except in Guam and the northern Mariana Islands where it is sustained winds 22 to 33 knots and/or combined seas of 10 feet or greater.

"Frequent gusts"are typically long duration conditions (greater than 2 hours).

Source: National Weather Service Marine Forecasts - FAQ

For Michigan, for example, the "Central" criteria apply. Waves of 4-feet or winds of 22-knots are deemed the threshold. On the east coast or on Lake Erie, waves need to be 5-feet and wind needs to be 25-knots to exceed the threshold.

Who knew?