Bye Bye Dial-a-Buoy
Today, 17 March 2024, marks the latest example of marine infrastructure volatility—the shutdown of the service that allowed us to obtain weather and sea-state information by toll-free telephone service. It’s hard to justify a service that few people use. The information is still available through the world-wide-web, however you’ll need an internet connection.
Effective Sunday March 17, 2024, the National Weather Service National Data Buoy Center will discontinue their Dial-A-Buoy Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that provides buoy data in voice format via IVR toll-free numbers and primarily supports public user data inquiry based on station ID.
This service is being discontinued due to the low volume of users and the cost to retain the service. NDBC encourages any user of this service to use the redesigned NDBC website with mobile compatibility at https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
Source: https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf_2023_24/scn24-06_dab_termination.pdf
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