This is a pre-passage source and decision desk, not a current forecast or clearance to depart. The map is centred approximately on the area, not on your route or a forecast-zone boundary.
Distinguish an island or coastal bulletin from the wider METAREA text and its validity window. Long passages need a reliable method to obtain refreshed warnings offshore; a saved app screen is not one.
1. Primary sources
Open current bulletins and warnings for every sea area on the route. These links are starting points, not a promise that each covers the whole location; if unsure, identify the issuer through WMO–IMO.
2. Route and local effects
Atoll shelter and the open-water leg require different checks.
A Maldives itinerary changes atoll group and may include open-ocean reaches between sheltered lagoons.
Read the Maldives Met Service marine forecast for the correct atoll group and its warnings; use the relevant METAREA bulletin for a longer ocean arrival. Reef-entry information is a separate navigation check.
How to use this source set
Start with the warning, then the marine text for the exact named area. If the route crosses a zone boundary, obtain both bulletins. Note issue and valid times, wind units and the meaning of wave height. Where a link opens an agency portal, navigate to its current marine product; a homepage is not itself a forecast.
Compare with an exposed station or buoy if available. Check its position and observation time: a sheltered station does not overturn a warning for an open channel. If a bulletin is missing or stale, identify the issuing service via WMO–IMO and defer the decision until current information is available.
Before-passage check
- Mark departure, exposed legs, arrival and feasible diversions; find the responsible named marine areas for each.
- Check warnings, issue and valid times; assess conditions when you expect to reach each leg, not only at departure.
- Compare wind and gusts, waves and swell, visibility, thunderstorms and local effects; do not infer a strait from a sheltered harbour.
- Compare recent observations where available, noting their time and exposure; a mismatch calls for another check.
- Set the next bulletin check, a reassessment trigger, an alternative and a backup communication channel.
Model map — optional
Windy is a third-party model display, not the issuer of official warnings. Choose a layer and check its valid hour and model run. Nothing loads until you click.
Without JavaScript, open the map separately.
If connectivity fails
Before departure, save the current official text bulletin and warning with issue time. Arrange another way to receive updates, such as an appropriate coastal broadcast, NAVTEX or satellite channel. A saved map cannot replace new warnings.
How to choose weather tools · All sailing areas
Scope: Source list assembled 25 September 2026; check its freshness and coverage before use. This public area guide is not a current personalised forecast, navigational notice service or safety verdict. Personalised forecasts with AI and experts are in closed testing; public booking is not open. The skipper makes the decision.
A named atoll warning is not a national clearance
Match the route's departure atoll, exposed inter-atoll leg and destination to the current Maldives Meteorological Service alert area. Preserve the original atoll names beside any translation. If the source language cannot be interpreted confidently, obtain a checked translation instead of treating an unread alert as no warning. IMD's Arabian Sea area bulletin also includes a Maldives-area section; use it as broader context with its own validity, not as a reef-entry forecast.
- Maldives Meteorological Service forecasts and alerts — Atoll-named alerts; untranslated product must be checked with competent assistance Direct product verification is limited; obtain the current issue from the issuer.
- IMD Arabian Sea area bulletin — Named Arabian Sea subdivisions and Maldives/Lakshadweep; issue and validity have separate time labels
Lagoon conditions do not describe the next gap
Assess incoming swell at the exposed side of the destination and the reef entrance separately from wind inside the lagoon. Tide height, local current phase, charted depths and passage visibility require applicable navigation sources; a model wave cell cannot supply them. Avoid borrowing a measurement from another atoll without checking its location and exposure. Label a missing current or approach observation explicitly in the passage brief.
Keep a weather delay from becoming a late reef approach
Compare departure options at the destination ETA, including loss of daylight and a slower open-water passage. If a delay removes the independently verified approach conditions, assess remaining at the current checked location rather than selecting the next lighter-wind hour. Refresh the alert before leaving atoll shelter. This page supplies no reef passage coordinates, fixed entry window or assurance that a lagoon is accessible.
Editorial review of this material: 27 September 2026. This date concerns the page content; check current forecast issue times and validity at the original sources.