First Alert Weather In-Depth: Buoy data for the big lake

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It is not an overestimate to say that we have hundreds, if not thousands of weather reporting stations located around Western New York.

These are terrific land-based stations. But what if you are boating out in the middle of Lake Ontario and you need some valuable weather and lake data? There is a place to get that information. It is the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Buoy that is located on Lake Ontario.

The data is not available in the winter season – for obvious reasons. But during the nice weather months it transmits data 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it provides this information from a location that is not easily accessible.

Where is it located? It is 20 nautical miles north to northeast of the shoreline of Lake Ontario and Rochester. It will measure some of the typical atmospheric data, including wind speed and wind direction. But in terms of the marine data, it will also measure the water temperature, wave heights and the specific wave direction.

Wave direction helps if you have a strong northerly wind that wind is pushing waves along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. In fact, you can even get a picture from an onboard camera which captures the lake in a 360-degree multiple image view. This data helps immensely for certain forecast products such as the News 10NBC First Alert boating forecast.

If you would like to directly connect to this NOAA buoy, just click here for real-time information.