Coast Guard to Continue High Seas Weather Broadcasts

Almost a year ago, the Coast Guard publicly pondered pulling the plug on its high-frequency (HF) weather broadcasts. They called for comments, and the boating public answered loudly. From those comments, the Coast Guard prepared a business case analysis report, which you can download here. For those who don't want to wade through the whole report, the bottom line is:

The responding public collectively perceives that the USCG HF broadcasts are essential to their safety. There is no viable alternative to the USCG HF broadcasts because present alternatives are perceived by the public to be out of financial reach. Also, marine weather forecasts available through these alternative sources may not guarantee the same level of accuracy, timeliness, and/or sufficiency as provided by the USCG HF broadcasts.

The Coast Guard still has to scrap many of its HF services because of budget constraints, but they'll keep the weather forecasts on the air. In fact, they're now planning to upgrade the weather broadcast stations so they can keep sending out their lifesaving bulletins into the forseeable future.