Diamond Offshore Drilling, Transocean Deepwater Drilling, Ensco, Shell, Shell Exploration, Chevron, BP, Forest, Unocal, Citgo, Exxon-Mobil, Pogo, El Paso, Apache, Newfield, Murphy, Conoco, Amerada Hess, Devon...  What do these companies have to do with weather?

Over the last several years, the National Weather Service in Lake Charles has been working with these and other companies to enhance safety in the Gulf of Mexico. When tropical weather threatens the Gulf, Diamond Offshore, Transocean, and Ensco turn their attention to weather and begin providing the NWS with much needed weather information from their fleets of semi-submersible drill rigs and drilling ships. This information is analyzed by specialists at the National Hurricane Center and NWS coastal offices and used in forecasting the movement and strength of a system. These vessels become the eyes of the NWS.

Shell Exploration maintains four Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) while Exxon-Mobil maintains one, and all of these sites are located in the deep waters of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. When tropical and non-tropical systems threaten the Gulf, the weather information and data from these systems are collected by NWS meteorologists and ingested into the Automated Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). This data is used in the same manner as ship and vessel weather observations of wind, waves, and pressure.  

At present, there are approximately 860 manned oil platforms of the nearly 4000 total platforms in the northwestern Gulf. Weather, especially lightning, is a major factor in the operations of these platforms. For years, the National Weather Service Lake Charles was working on a way to receive weather data from these platforms. With the help of modern technology, workers on the offshore platforms can now send weather reports through the internet.

These Offshore Surface Observations enhance our marine forecasts and warnings by providing ground truth of what is actually occurring. Platform operators, support vessels, fisherman, and even helicopters are now able to view this weather data and plan accordingly. During Tropical Storm Arlene in early June, many platforms south of Mobile remained staffed and passed on weather information concerning the storm.  
 

The staff at National Weather Service Lake Charles would like to thank those companies and individuals working with us to make the Gulf of Mexico a safer place.

The weather observations collected from the offshore platforms are broadcast as Offshore Surface Observations over NOAA Weather Radio, and can be viewed under Rig & Ship Reports in the Marine section of our website.