From years of pursuing a personal hobby, a few mariners have made significant contributions to Cayman weather broadcasting.

Their curiosity started with involvement with amateur radio and evolved into a broader interest in amateur weather. Today Roger Corbin and Andrew Eden operate the web site weatherincayman.com.

The site provides live weather from a number of locations on Grand Cayman. Up-to-date weather information is available online on Cayman Retreat, Crewe Road, Jackson Point, Savannah, Bosun Bay Sand Bluff. Gun Bay, airport, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. The information includes local tide tables, forecasts, severe weather advisories, and regional earthquakes. among other data.

“We do not try and compete with the professionals,” said Mr. Corbin. “We just put out there what the professionals’ state. All of the weather sources we use are reliable in that they come from weather stations on the island or official sources in the United States.”

For years Andrew Eden was reporting by ham radio to the National Hurricane Center when there was bad weather in the Cayman area. Mr. Corbin, himself a ham operator, also had an interest in computers. Combined with Mr. Eden’s expertise in radio operations, they started sending weather information directly to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which feeds it to the US National Hurricane Center.

Gradually they found out that there were other people on the island operating personal weather stations. They agreed to share the weather information using their system, which enabled them to post weather forecasts from the different locations.

According to Mr. Corbin, the station is fully computerised and does not have to be manned constantly. The computer sends the data, and his programme puts it together.

Rather than having to hunt down the weather on the web from different channels, Mr. Corbin said they have put it all together in one place for easier access.

“Whatever the government weather site puts out, we put it on the weather site. We do not edit. If they publish George Town is under 25 feet of water, we put it out there as is. But we are very careful to say, this comes from Government Information Services.

“If my station shuts down, all the other local personal weather operators would keep reporting the weather in specific areas,” said Mr. Corbin. He added that the web site is hosted in New York, and if his Cayman service were to go down completely -- as was the case after Hurricane Ivan -- updates would still be available from links to a number of other official sites.

He also said the ground stations are very important because there can be some discrepancies from satellite readings. “I am not saying they cannot be accurate,” he said, but Cayman is but a small dot on the map, and a satellite reading can be off by a couple of miles, whereas a ground station can give more accurate readings and up-to-date information on weather in the surrounding area.

Ham radio operators also assist with the weather, he said. “If the weather instruments stop working, a radio operator can talk directly to the hurricane center and relay the conditions they are experiencing over the last couple of hours.”

According to Mr Corbin, “every mariner that has gone to sea knows you need nothing else to tell the weather but a barometer.” 

“The reading tells us exactly what is happening when a hurricane is approaching or leaving ...”, said Mr. Eden.

The weather site has functioned well over the years except for the few times the equipment was blown away by hurricanes.