The National Weather Service (NWS) is implementing an Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS) facilitating the creation of various forecast products. This paper describes the generation of marine watches, warnings, and advisories (WWA) through the NWS IFP system. NWS marine forecasts contain specific marine WWAs, that highlight forecast hazardous weather. The issuance of various marine WWAs, such as the Small Craft Advisory, alerts the user to adverse weather in marine areas.

IFPS can analyze the digital forecast data to automatically generate the appropriate marine WWAs. Various tools within IFPS also aid forecasters in the creation and coordination of marine WWAs. In addition, use of IFPS to generate marine WWAs will allow for rapid creation and dissemination of these critical products. This will allow forecasters to spend more time forecasting hazardous weather and less time on the manual creation and correction of hand-typed products.