This isn’t something you think about when you think about the USGS or the NOAA. But their monitoring stations, with real-time or short-delay feeds, and sea floor mapping makes the prediction models better.
It’s not an obvious use case for data such as this, which is why it’s important to remember, and it is similarly important that the data be available in open, preferably human-readable formats.
This is definitely something I think about when I think of NOAA and USGS. I’ve been surfing in California since the early ‘90s, and have spent many hours listening to the buoys being recited over the weather radio. We knew exactly what times each hour our relevant buoys’ readings would come on, and we’d constantly be tuned in to see if there were any changes in swell.
And today, the lifeblood of many surf forecasting websites is based on this data.
This use case is basically all I think of when I think of NOAA.
It’s not an obvious use case for data such as this, which is why it’s important to remember, and it is similarly important that the data be available in open, preferably human-readable formats.