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PNSWSH

Service Change Notice 13-2

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

1050 AM EST Thu Jan 3 2013

To: Subscribers:

-Family of Services

-NOAA Weather Wire Service

-Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

-NOAAPORT

Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees

From: Mark A. Tew

Chief, Marine and Coastal Services Branch

Subject: Due to lack of funds, NDBC Buoy 41012, Offshore

St. Augustine, Florida, is no longer supported

effective immediately

The National Ocean Service (NOS) Coastal Storms Program (CSP) has

discontinued sponsorship of National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy

41012. This buoy is considered unfunded. Buoy 41012 is located

about 40 nautical miles east northeast of St. Augustine, Florida,

at coordinates 30.042 North, 80.534 West. The approximate

location of the buoy is show in the link below.

Annual cost to operate this buoy is about $60,000, plus U.S.

Coast Guard support to service it. At this time, the buoy is

fully operational and transmitting data. If problems with data

transmission develop, there is no funding to repair the buoy and

it will no longer transmit data. There is no way to determine how

long the data will be available.

Buoy 41012 was deployed in June 2002. The CSP is not an

operational program and typically does not provide long term

funding for projects. The CSP and NDBC have been working together

for the past few years to find an alternative funding source for

this buoy but have been unsuccessful.

For more information on this buoy and itscurrent data, see the

link below.

Please provide any comments to the following e-mail address with

the subject line: Unfunded Buoy 41012:

For more information, contact:

Wayne Presnell

Meteorologist, Marine and Coastal Services Branch

Silver Spring, MD 20910

301-713-1677, ext. 103

National Service Change Notices are online at: