weather buoys

Just wondering what anybodys thoughts are as regards weather buoys and the accurcy of the information they can give us. Ive seen the map on the met eirann website and all the buoys are pretty much offshore, does their information corralate with inshore conditions as regards swell and wave direction, also any other info please

sample of the information they gather:

Buoy M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6
Date 14 Feb 11:00 09 Dec 22:00 09 Dec 22:00 09 Dec 22:00 09 Dec 22:00 09 Dec 22:00
Meteorological
Atm. Pressure (mb) n/a 1026.4 1032 1029.6 1028.6 1033.6
Wind Speed (kn) n/a 19 16 n/a 20 7
Max Gust (kn) n/a 25 23 n/a 31 n/a
Wind Direction (°) n/a 310 340 340 340 250
Air Temp. (°C) n/a 7.3 10.2 9.5 7.2 10.5
Relative Humidity (%) n/a 75 82 68 75 73
Wave
Wave Height (m) n/a 1.7 3.4 3.4 1.7 1.8
Wave Period (s) n/a 4 7 7 5 7
Mean Direction (°)
Oceanographic
Sea Temp. (°C) n/a 11.4 10.6 10.6 10.5 12.2
Sea Bird Temp. (°C)
Salinity (psu)

Just wondering what anybodys thoughts are as regards weather buoys and the accurcy of the information they can give us. Ive seen the map on the met eirann website and all the buoys are pretty much offshore, does their information corralate with inshore conditions as regards swell and wave direction, also any other info please

the information the buoys give is real-time and not predicted, its the people in the met offices that do the predicting, because the buoys are so far offshore the information will be different when the weather front reaches inshore as there are a multitude of factors to take into consideration, eg land mass, water temps, swell heights and tides all factor in the changes between off shore and inshore weather..

if you look at magicseaweed you will see what i mean with the wind patterns and the way they change as they get close to land masses..

saltydog i would like to know how they get the seabird temperature does the gull have to land on the buoy and then get "surprised" . So really the information they give would be just that and i would be better off watching the weather on rte for predictive forecasts

The marine institute have tidal guages as well
http://www.marine.ie/home/services/oper ... eGauge.htm