FORECAST CURRENTS
The world's ocean, in motion. Every eddy of the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio, two days back and ten days ahead.
The ocean this hour
LOADING…The great currents
FASTEST WATER IN EACH, THIS HOURThe Atlantic's jet, leaving the coast at Cape Hatteras and shedding rings as it meanders toward the Grand Banks.
Hurricane fuel. Where the Loop reaches north and its warm eddies break away, storms cross deep warm water.
The Pacific's Gulf Stream, running up Japan's south coast before turning east as the Kuroshio Extension.
Often the fastest water on Earth. It turns back on itself south of Africa and pinches off rings into the Atlantic.
The current that reverses with the monsoon: north all summer, south all winter, and briefly one of the world's fastest.
Down the coast from the Coral Sea to Sydney, where it breaks into the eddies that carry warm water to Tasmania.
How to read it
Streaks are the water
Each line follows the current through it, so the eddies draw themselves. The brightness is the speed: black water is barely moving, white is running at three knots and more.
Knots, as a mariner reads them
Currents are in knots by default, with metres per second a click away. Waves are in metres or feet, temperature in °C or °F. Hover anywhere in the chart room to read the value under the pixel.
Two days back, ten ahead
Every day's run starts from an analysis that has taken in the satellites, floats and buoys. The timeline opens two days before it, so you can watch the forecast pick up where the ocean actually was.
The manifest
WHAT IS ABOARDPart of the fleet
Forecast Currents is the ocean member of the Forecast Network, and the first ship of its maritime line — Forecast Cruise and Forecast Fishing are on the slipway. Its sister sites carry the national wave models: Forecast Britain the Met Office's, Forecast Norway MET Norway's, Forecast Italy the Mediterranean's and Forecast Finland the Baltic's. Same viewer, same colour tables, same probe — pointed at the sea.