Using the wind map

The wind map is a picture of the wind over Santa Monica Bay: moving streaks show which way it is blowing, and their colour shows how hard. The small card on Home and Conditions is a preview; the full-screen map adds swell, current, the forecast hours and the buoys.

The card

The card shows the wind right now. LIVE WIND in the corner means the streaks are driven by the live station reading; FORECAST WIND means the station has not reported and the model’s number is used instead. The chip under it gives the direction the wind is coming from, for example “from W 270°”. The big number at the bottom left is the speed in your unit, with gusts beneath it, and the strip along the bottom is the colour legend. When the wind is under 1 knot the number reads Calm.

Opening the full-screen map

1. Tap anywhere on the Wind Map card, on Home or on Conditions.

   

2. The map fills the screen. The harbor name sits at the top left with a line that reads LIVE + FORECAST · OPEN-METEO (or just FORECAST when there is no live reading). At the top right are two round buttons: one recentres the map on the harbor, the X closes it.

3. Pinch to zoom and drag to pan. You can zoom in as far as the marina basins and slips, and the map will not let you pan beyond the area the wind forecast covers.

4. The readout in the middle of the map shows the speed, the direction it is coming from, and the time the map is showing (Now, or a day and hour once you move the slider).

Switching layers

Three buttons on the map choose what it shows:

• Wind: speed in knots or mph, coloured from calm through to gale. Wind is drawn over land as well as water, because it blows there too.
• Swell: wave height in feet or metres, drawn over the water only.
• Current: surface current in knots, also over the water only.

The legend at the bottom changes with the layer. The wind colours run from Calm (under 3 kt) through Light (3 to 8), Moderate (8 to 14), Fresh (14 to 21) and Strong (21 to 27) to Gale (27 and up). Those bands are the same whether you display knots or mph.

Moving through the forecast

1. Find the FORECAST slider near the bottom of the screen. The label on its right reads Now to begin with.
2. Drag the handle to the right to move forward an hour at a time. The label changes to the day and hour, for example “Thu 3 PM”, and the streaks and the readout update to that hour.
3. Drag it back to the left to return to Now.

At Now the wind layer uses the same live reading as the rest of the app, so the map matches the headline number on Home. Every later hour is the model forecast, so it is normal for the first forecast hour to differ a little from the live number.

Tapping a buoy or station

The pins on the map are the stations Slipside reads. Tap one to open a card with its latest readings: wind, swell, water and air temperature, or the next tide, depending on what that station measures. The card also names the type of station and how far it is from the harbor, and the time of the reading. A station that has gone quiet shows No recent readings reported. Tap the X on the card, or anywhere on the map outside it, to close it.

Around Marina del Rey the pins are the Santa Monica tide and wind station at the pier (3.8 nautical miles away), the Santa Monica Bay wave buoy, the Santa Monica Basin offshore wind buoy, the San Pedro wave buoy and the Los Angeles (San Pedro) tide station. The offshore buoys sit well outside the bay, so their wind and swell read higher than what you will find inside the breakwater.

Where the map data comes from

The streaks are drawn from a wind forecast grid (Open-Meteo) sampled every hour; the swell and current layers come from the same provider’s marine models. The station readings are live from NOAA. The coastline is OpenStreetMap data, which is why the card carries a small attribution line.

Still stuck? In the app, open Profile, then Help & Support, and use Send to support. Otherwise email support@slipside.app.