Modern Marine Weather by David Burch

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David Burch

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Below are updates and expanded details on textbook content.

Reference	Subject	Further Information
Frontispiece	Decoratative wind force equation	The exact force value for wind perpendicular to a surface is Cdx0.0034xV^2, where Cd=1 for polished metal or glass surface, but Cd = 1.2 to 1.4 for rougher surfaces like wood or canvas. The value given corresponds to Cd~1.25, which is roughly right for wind on boats or people.
Throughout...	With the advent of Starlink, we should consider the desktop version of Google Earth as a valuable navigation aid. There are multiple applications.	The KML files at OPC are of a crude map projection and not that useful. But you can make your own. We have a couple here: Starpath KML files. Here is our youtube playlist of GE related videos.
p9, Table 1.6-1	An annotated list of resources, with regional compilations to illustrate how they work together.	Example of custom weather resources: Puget Sound and Inside Passage These need to be updated.
p72, Section 3.7, Other Ocean Models	Ocean currents	Our compilation of Ocean Current information at www.starpath.com/currents.
p117, Section 4.6, Squall Lines	Two case histories, one from the Great Lakes (a special class of squall line called a Derecho) and another well studied example that capsized HMS Eurydice off the Isle of Wight on March 24, 1878	Squall lines Great Lakes , H.M.S. Eurydice
p182, Section 8.2, Archived Weather Data	Ways to get to specific historical data.	The Starpath Weather Trainer is the best source we know of. It has an extensive archives Atlas with direct links according to data type.
p192, 215, 224	Demise of... VOBRA, HF radio voice broadcasts	On Dec 3, 2025 NWS announced that this historic service will be discontinued. Most mariners now using satcom in some form or email delivery. All were ended on Jan 6, 2026
p240, Section 10.7, Basic Checkpoints	On combining GRIB files.	How to Combine GRIB Files Expedition lets us open multiple files at once, as does OpenCPN and qtVlm. qtVlm has a function that combines GRIBS that can then be opened in other apps.
p249, Appendix 8	Probability forecasting	Nov 5, 2025. OPC has a new, experimental Weeks 2-3 Global Tropics Hazards Outlook (GTH). Asking for user comments on it. Interesting.
p252, Appendix 9	We have a new reference on these computations, with a free app that computes the corrections.	Wind on the Water: A Sailor's Perspective

Links

There is no logic to the order of these items below

New hands-on content about use of grib files is now at our Grib School

We use all of the nav/wx apps listed in the book, but in our courses we focus on qtVlm, and as such have dedicated support in the form of a Cheat Sheet and indexed Playlist.

Section of Dove's Law of Storms on Practical Matters (mostly of historical interest)

We have a greatly expanded discussion of individual models in the Fourth Edition. For a concise description of available options see www.luckgrib.com/models. Luckgrib is the only source we know of that offers GRIB files of all the models we might benifit from.

Two tropical storm resources not listed in the book: Global view of tropical storms and hurricanes with many statistics on each system. Unique analysis of the probability of existing storms and depressions turning into hurricanes (or equivalent systems).

Read about our Online Marine Weather Course

Articles

Our main source is the weather articles at www.starpath.com/articles. Later we will focus here on ones referenced in the book. Below are just a few suggested ones, but see first the Marine Weather Check List and overview of Marine Weather.

We have added to the textbook discussion of weather by satphone in two articles in our nav blog: Nuts and Bolts of Sat Phone Usage and Weather by Sat Phone. The book updates these.

Two new articles related to converting station pressure to sea level pressure: Point Four Four per Floor — QFE to QNH to QFF and Mean Sea Level, Tides, and Barometers

True Wind Revisited which are updated notes on computing True Wind from Apparent Wind when COG ≠ Heading... again, our treatment of accurate true wind computations is greatly expanded in the text.

Ensemble Prediction Systems — an NCEP tutorial

Notes on HF use in South Pacific and other places by MetBob Article 1 and follow up Article 2, also tells how to receive Bob's valuable weekly reports by email request to Saildocs. Must have for SPAC sailing.

Hurricanes on the Route to Hawaii — Weather vs. Climate. Summary: we do not have to change anything we have been teaching on this for the past 20 years.

Effect of Leeway on Knotmeter Speed ... a follow up on a point only mentioned briefly in the book.

Videos

See Our marine weather playlist of videos

An example of the corner effect, which we just annotated with our new favorite way to predict where this effect will occur in the Northern Hemisphere: with your back to the wind, expect enhanced winds off large low corners on your right hand side. Start with the Buys-Ballot law for finding direction to lowest pressure (left hand in NH), which puts the wind on your back. Then corner effect is on your right. So the Buys Ballot law gives you two things: direction to low pressure on your left, and potential corner effect winds on your right. Both directions are reversed in the SH. We have other ways to predict this in the book, but this is probably an easier way to remember it.

Using Buoy Data and BuoyCAMs to study Passing Storms. This is an article on the subject with links to several related videos.