Rant - Satellite Down, Surf forecasts suffer?
Yesterday, QuikScat, the satellite responsible for most wind measurements over the ocean failed, most likely permanently. There are other satellites, notably ascat, that provide similar functionality, but cover far less area than QuikScat did. Ascat may be good enough to initialize swell models such as WWIII, but I definitely expect to see a degradation in forecast accuracy until they can get a new satellite up there, current timeframe ~2016! at the earliest.
