Pull real-time wind speed and gust data from the nearest NOAA data buoy or coastal station for a crane lift at a waterfront or port construction site.
domain: ndbc.noaa.gov (National Data Buoy Center) · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Use the NDBC station map at ndbc.noaa.gov to identify the buoy or coastal station nearest the lift site.
Fetch that station's realtime2 text file (e.g., ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/<station-id>.txt), which NDBC publishes as a fixed-width plain-text feed rather than a JSON API.
Parse the WSPD and GST columns for sustained wind speed and gust, noting NDBC reports these in meters per second by default.
Convert units to match the crane manufacturer's load-chart wind-limit units (commonly mph or knots) before comparing against operational limits.
Confirm the station is currently reporting — buoys and coastal stations regularly go offline for maintenance, and a stale or missing latest observation should not be treated as a zero-wind reading.
Known gotchas
NDBC's realtime2 feeds are plain fixed-width text files, not a documented JSON/REST API — expect to write custom parsing logic, and be aware NDBC has changed this format across past updates.
Buoy data reflects open-water conditions, which can differ substantially from wind conditions at an inland or structure-shielded jobsite — use it for waterfront/port lifts specifically, not as a general substitute for a land-based forecast.
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