The press release read well: "The new application Marine Forecast of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) shows the current oceanographic and meteorological situation in the German areas at sea." Stands there. You can get information about currents, swell, wave heights and weather conditions free of charge, it said.
The whole thing graphically well prepared, and the authority would catch up with the private online weather services. But unfortunately the reality is different. Processing, user guidance and presentation are far removed from well-known services such as Windy.com. In return, you get the information first hand, and the cooperation with the German Weather Service promises regionally high-resolution observation and forecast data. This is exactly where the two authorities could score. Because free, private services usually do not manage that. They are almost always based on large-scale and coarser models.
Wind just with no direction
A first test is sobering. Once you have got used to the complicated menu navigation, tidal currents and wave heights can be called up relatively easily. The current field is only available for the North Sea and the sluggish loading times of the page require a lot of patience. The menu item "Meteorology" is even less mature. There you can only select the wind strength, you won't find any information on the wind direction.
The menu navigation is complicated, the wind direction cannot be displayed
A request from BSH creates clarity: "This is one of the functions that is currently being worked on. By the summer, our colleagues want to bring in an update with which the wind direction can then be displayed," said the deputy press spokeswoman Merle Mansfeld.
Hopefully the update will also optimize the loading times of the site.
At the link https://marineforecast.bsh.de everyone can get an idea of the performance of the portal.