Support
Questions, bug reports and feature requests are welcome at daniel.cantor@gmail.com. Please include your device model and iOS version if you are reporting a problem.
Common questions
Where does the data come from?
Everything is from NOAA. Forecasts come from the National Weather Service gridded marine data. Live wind, waves and water temperature come from National Data Buoy Center stations. Water levels come from NOAA CO-OPS tide gauges. The plain-English forecast is the NWS nearshore marine text product — the same one broadcast over VHF radio.
Why have most of the buoys disappeared?
Most Lake Erie buoys are physically pulled out of the water for the winter and redeployed in spring, so the Buoys tab thins out from roughly December to April. Shore and lighthouse stations report year round.
Why is the water temperature from somewhere else?
Not every station reports water temperature, and many stop reporting for stretches. The app walks outward from your launch point until it finds one that is reporting, and names the station it used. On a big lake that station can be several miles away and a few degrees off what you will find at the ramp.
Why is there no written forecast for the open-water locations?
The Weather Service writes nearshore text forecasts for the shoreline zones only. The three open-water locations sit outside those zones, so they show gridded numbers but no text. Pick a shore location to read the written forecast for that water.
My notifications look out of date
Notifications are built from the last forecast the app downloaded, and the schedule is rewritten every time you open the app. If you have not opened it in several days, the morning brief may be based on older data. Opening the app refreshes everything.
How is the Calm / Good / Choppy / Rough / Stay In rating calculated?
It combines forecast wind, gusts and wave height, and takes the worst conditions during daylight hours. Lake Erie is shallow, so waves stack up short and steep — a two-foot day here is bumpier than two feet on deep water, and the rating reflects that. You can see the full scale and set your own comfort thresholds in Settings.
What does the seiche card mean?
A sustained wind physically tips Lake Erie, pushing water to one end. The card compares the gauge at Toledo with the one at Buffalo. A large difference means shallow water at one end, and a rebound coming when the wind eases.
Does it work outside Lake Erie?
No. The launch points, buoys and gauges are all specific to Lake Erie.