Lake Michigan and Huron Operational Forecast System (LMHOFS)

Effective on May 20, 2020 beginning at 18z Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), two major changes for NOS OFS datasets on THREDDS will be implemented. Please see the Service Change Notice for details

https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/scn20-43nos_ofs.pdf

1. Retention period change - Only the most recent 31 days of OFS output files will be available on CO-OPS THREDDS.

2. File structure changes - To improve THREDDS performance related to file access and data aggregation

(Please click on the map pins below to access the time series plots)

Water Level	Wind	Water Temperature	Currents
(Please click on the categories below to access animated map plots)
Nowcast	Nowcast	Nowcast	Field Nowcast
Forecast Guidance	Forecast Guidance	Forecast Guidance	Field Forecast Guidance
Nowcast - Lake Michigan	Nowcast - Lake Michigan	Nowcast - Lake Michigan	Field Nowcast - Lake Michigan
Forecast Guidance - Lake Michigan	Forecast Guidance - Lake Michigan	Forecast Guidance - Lake Michigan	Field Forecast Guidance - Lake Michigan
Nowcast - Lake Huron	Nowcast - Lake Huron	Nowcast - Lake Huron	Field Nowcast - Lake Huron
Forecast Guidance - Lake Huron	Forecast Guidance - Lake Huron	Forecast Guidance - Lake Huron	Field Forecast Guidance - Lake Huron
Nowcast - Mackinac Straits	Nowcast - Mackinac Straits	Nowcast - Mackinac Straits	Field Nowcast - Mackinac Straits
Forecast Guidance - Mackinac Straits	Forecast Guidance - Mackinac Straits	Forecast Guidance - Mackinac Straits	Field Forecast Guidance - Mackinac Straits

The Lake Michigan and Huron Operational Forecast System (LMHOFS) was jointly developed by NOAA/National Ocean Service's (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) and Office of Coast Survey (OCS), the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), the NOAA/National Weather Service's (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) National Central Operations (NCO), and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

LMHOFS uses the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) to provide users with nowcast (analyses of near present) and forecast guidance of water levels, currents, and water temperature out to 120 hours, four times per day. By combining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron into one model grid and invoking advanced model schemes and algorithms, LMHOFS is expected to generate a more accurate model output than the former LMOFS and LHOFS, which have separate model domains based on the Princeton Ocean Model (POM).

The NWS and NOS work together to run LMHOFS operationally on NOAA's High Performance Computing System (HPCS). By running on NOAA's HPCS, LMHOFS has direct access to National Weather Service operational meteorological products that are required for reliable operations.

For more information about LMHOFS, please click here.

For more information about FVCOM, please click here.

Disclaimer
The Lake Michigan and Huron Operational Forecast System (LMHOFS) has been implemented by NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) to provide the maritime user community with short-term predictions of water levels, water currents, and water temperatures of the Lake Michigan and Huron. LMHOFS uses a numerical hydrodynamic model to generate the nowcast and forecast information; therefore, they should be considered as model-generated nowcast and forecast guidance. For more detailed information related to the OFS disclaimer, please visit at the Disclaimers web page.