Drifting buoy keeps monitoring
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Buoy One, the weather buoy normally anchored far to the northwest of the Islands, has been adrift for three weeks and is now about 200 miles directly north of O'ahu, still delivering weather data.
Reports from the buoy normally provide the National Weather Service with detailed information on when winter northwest swells will arrive in the Islands and how big they will be. But with the buoy far east of its normal position, it cannot give forecasters nearly the warning time it normally does.
"For this time of year, Buoy One is a key data buoy. It is one of the tools that we use for predicting swells and surf forecasting," said meteorologist Tom Heffner.
The Coast Guard and a crew from the National Data Buoy Center hope to leave during the coming week to catch up with the boat-shaped buoy and return it to its normal location, in waters 2 miles deep about 20 miles to the northeast of Nihoa Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The buoy apparently broke its mooring cable Jan. 10. It continued to provide water temperature, wave height, wind speed and other information as it drifted. It apparently was dragging a considerable length of its broken mooring cable, snagged on a shallow reef near Nihoa, then broke free again.
Heffner said it has been drifting eastward at 3 to 4 knots.
Glenda Schornick of the National Data Buoy Center, which manages the nationwide weather buoy network, said the agency is sending a team from Mississippi tomorrow to work with the Coast Guard to help restore the buoy to its station.
Buoy One, officially designated as 51001, is a 19-foot-long, yellow Nomad-class buoy. Its instrumentation is powered by batteries that are recharged by solar photovoltaic cells.
It is one of four buoys anchored around the Hawaiian Islands to provide advance warning of weather approaching the main islands. The buoys have instruments that measure wind speed and direction, sea and air temperatures, sea-level pressure, wave height and wave energy at various frequencies.
A similar buoy to the southwest of the Islands, Buoy Three, has stopped sending data for unknown reasons. It is also scheduled to be repaired this month.
Buoys Two and Four, to the south and southeast of the Islands, continue to function normally.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
