SwimSmart's Beach Notification Light (BNL) is not simply a illuminated replacement of the modern day beach warning flag system but offers massive efficiency improvements. The BNL is connected to the internet which allows for instantaneous changes from anywhere. Furthermore, SwimSmart BNL's offer a unique National Weather Service (NWS) autonomy feature that allows the BNL to be updated automatically (autonomously) based upon the most recent local Nearshore Surf Zone Forecast (SRF). Note that NWS autonomy focuses specifically on Dangerous Waves and Currents. It does not forecast Water Quality, Stinging Marine Life, or Pier Closures.
The Surf Zone Forecast (SRF) is a product provided by 37 different National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecasting Offices (WFO). These WFOs are regionally distributed and manage many different forecast products for their local community. The SRF is a rolling forecast, meaning there is always a forecast active at any given time. Unlike, for example, a tornado warning which has a beginning and end. The SRF for many northern states has a defined season from typically May 1st to October 1st.* Southern coastal states have year-round SRF forecasting. The SRF contains important information such as wave height, period, water temperature, tides, and more. But most importantly, contains a Swim/Rip Risk. Depending on the WFO some publish between 1 and 8 SRF updates a day all season. On occasion sporadic updates are made if deemed necessary.
All SwimSmart BNLs offer the ability to autonomously follow the most recent SRF forecast's Swim/Rip Risk level. This level of risk is translated into our relative hazard warning lights - High, Moderate, Low Swim/Rip Risk -> High (Red), Medium (Yellow), Low (Green) Hazard. Our servers check for updates on the SRFs by all 37 issuing WFOs every minute, if a change is detected it will update all subscribed devices within that Forecast Zone. Most Forecast Zones are county by county, however, there are many exceptions. How the NWS determines a high, moderate, or low risk varies from WFO to WFO. It depends on the local observational equipment, forecasting models, and on-the-ground stakeholders they may have in a given area. Each BNL equipped device will automatically be updated with the most recent SRF (at a 1 minute interval) regardless of whether a device is set to autonomy or overridden. Even if devices are in specialty modes (such as sleep mode) the SRFs will still be updated for future use. At any time, a device's BNL can be set to "NWS" which refers to National Weather Service autonomy. When a device is set to autonomy it will follow the NWS SRF forecasts forever unless overridden. "Overriding" is the process of manually assigning the BNL color at the discretion of the beach manager. When a device is overridden it will likewise remain that same overridden color forever unless either manually set to a new color or back to NWS. Note that sleep mode simply turns the light on and off during prescribed sleep hours. However, once it wakes from sleep mode it will return to either the overridden color or the most recent NWS SRF depending on what it's set to. Devices BNL color can be changed between overridden and NWS during sleep mode; however, the light will remain off until it exits this mode.
Overriding is the manual assignment of the Beach Notification Light primary color. Thus, setting a device to red, yellow, green, off, or double-red is considered an override. Note that manually setting a light off or double-red is also considered an override.
When the BNL is overridden it will remain the color it was manually assigned until it is manually set back to NWS. However, the device will still receive SRF updates even when overridden. Therefore, when the device is set back to NWS it will have the most up-to-date forecast.
Purple, stinging marine life, and the pier light do not relate to the primary colors and is not considered overridden. In other words, the device can be set to Purple + NWS or Pier + NWS if equipped. For the purple example, purple will be on forever until turned off, however, the primary color will follow NWS unless overridden.
Sleep mode is a device configuration that changes the device into a special state, sleep mode, at a pre-defined time window each day. In sleep mode, the device will still function and remain connected to the internet transmitting health information and receive SRF updates. However, during sleep mode the BNL will be forced OFF regardless of it’s previous setting.
It doesn’t matter whether the primary color is red, double-red, NWS, etc. the light will be force-set to OFF during the sleep mode period. Likewise, purple and pier lights are also disabled (OFF) during the sleep period. In other words, all lights within the BNL are turned off for the duration of the configured sleep mode.
When the device wakes from sleep mode based upon it’s configured wake time, the light will revert back to whatever settings the primary, marine, and pier light were set to. If the previous setting before waking was NWS it will set itself to the most recent SRF, not the SRF before it entered sleep mode. In other words, the device will be up-to-date with the most recent SRF even during sleep mode.
Note: The BNL primary, marine, pier lights can be changed in sleep mode but will remain OFF until it wakes. This is useful to set the lights just prior to parking opening hours for the day.
As with all technology, nothing is perfect and there are a series of known situations that can result in a stale (old) forecast.
1.) Device Disconnections – if equipped with local network device management, a device disconnected from the internet will not be able to receive SRF updates until it reconnects. Once a device reconnects to the internet it will issue a request for SRF update. Local network devices will also be stale as long as the gateway device is disconnected.
2.) Bad Forecasts – The text products delivered by NWS, at times, can have errors. Over the years we’ve seen it all and are very proactive to reach out to our partner WFOs to address SRF issues. We typically known right away if a SRF error is detected. We will contact the beach manager and inform them if necessary.
Rather than an error within the SRF, there have been times where NWS servers have had downtime resulting in delays of published SRFs.
3.) Software Bugs – While there are no outstanding bugs related to autonomy, sometimes software issues at various levels can prevent updates from being transmitted. The flow that guarantees SRF updates is like a chain, if any one link is broken it can cause issues. Sometimes these issues relate to third party software, mobile network operators, or even in-house software.
4.) Software Updates – Legacy devices (prior to 24.3.12) that did not issue request for SRF update would have to wait until the next update and would have an empty forecast until then (light OFF). The light could be overridden to match the forecast in the meantime.
Alternatively, a SRF notification server update will prevent new updates from being sent until the update is complete. These are extremely rare and typically done at our scheduled update time at midnight EST to minimize impact.
5.) Newly Installed Devices – When a newly installed device is added for the first time it will be added into the SRF notification servers database as a new client device. This can sometimes take up to 24 hours to update and the first day or so of a new installation it may require manual overrides.