NDBC station · buoy
Buoy 45175: Mackinac Straits West, Mackinaw City, MI
45.825°N 84.772°W · Straits of Mackinac within 5 nm of Mackinac Bridge including Mackinac Island
- Wind
- S 16 kt, gusting 18
- Seas
- 1.0 ft
- Water
- 72°F
- Air
- 74°F
- Pressure
- 1016.6 mb
Reported 47 min ago · National Data Buoy Center, station 45175
A buoy reading is not a go/no-go
45175 measures the water. It does not know your boat. Fifteen knots and three feet is a pleasant afternoon on one hull and a beating on another, and the difference is the two or three numbers you already carry in your head. GoNoGo Weather scores this station and the forecast around it against your own limits and gives you one straight answer, with the hour it changes.
Score 45175 against YOUR boatFree, no card required.
How to read station 45175
This is a floating buoy, so its seas are measured rather than modeled. Significant wave height is the average of the highest third of the waves, which means roughly one wave in ten is noticeably bigger than the number, and the largest in an hour can be close to twice it.
Period matters as much as height. Four feet at ten seconds is a long, easy swell; four feet at four seconds is a short steep chop that stops a boat. Wind against tide steepens everything, and a buoy cannot see that from where it floats. Age matters too: stations go quiet, and a reading that has not updated in three hours is history rather than weather.
This station sits in the NWS marine zone Straits of Mackinac within 5 nm of Mackinac Bridge including Mackinac Island (LHZ345), which is the forecast we read alongside it.
Nearby stations
- 45194 · McGulpin Point North, MI (253) · 2 nm
- MACM4 · 9075080 · 4 nm
- CYGM4 · Cheboygan Marina, MI · 16 nm
- SRLM4 · Spectacle Reef Light, MI · 27 nm
This is a read of official forecasts and observations, not a guarantee. You know your boat and your crew. The call is yours.