The OMS exists thanks to a collaboration between Maritime Services and Coast (MDK) and the RMI. Every day the team prepares a detailed maritime and coastal weather report, including information about wind speeds, tides, precipitation chances and wave heights. “It concerns a specialized weather report for the coast and the shipping channels to the Western Scheldt, the coastal ports and, in recent years, also the port of Antwerp,” says David Dehenauw, head of Forecasting department at the RMI.
When drawing up each forecast, recent and reliable observations from the Flemish Banks Measuring Network of the Flemish Hydrography are used: measuring posts, buoys, tide stations and wind and current measuring locations spread across the coast. And the weather models from the RMI are also available to the OMS.