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Some examples of GRIB viewers to help you choose. It is largely a matter of personal likes and dislikes.
Viewers for GRIB files
Third parties providing GRIB data to sailors have developed many viewers. Some are free, some are charged for. Most will handle data frrom other sources. These are a few that I have used. Their principal merits are simplicity and ease of use. As a view is expanded onscreen, most GRIB viewers interpolate between values on the grid so giving an erroneous idea about resolution. More data in the form of wind arrows does not mean more information. Most viewers have the facility to let you read the actual forecast speed. That helps distinguish between a 15 knot wind vector which could be anything between 12.5 and 17.5 knots. They can usually display weather at a point as a time sequence. Most will let you step on one chart at a time or give you a movie.
GRIB files usually have the extension. grb, Some are compressed further and have extensions.grb.bz2 or .grb2. More forms are being introduced for different weather and oceanographic products – eg currents. You may have to experiment to find which viewer handles the data you are using.
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Viewfax  |
The first GRIB viewer developed by SailDocs for users of SailMail, the user funded HF radio service. There have been few changes; it is basic, easy to use with crude topography and no frills. For details, send a blank email to info@saildocs.com. |
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ZyGrib  |
ZyGrib is available nut no longer maintained – see below. There are PC, MacOS and Linux versions Many data options. Choose the presentation, colours etc to meet your personal likes Intended for use with the totally free zyGrib but it will read both .grb and .grb.bz2 from other sources. It is a good viewer for displaying high resolution data. |
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XyGrib  |
A fork of zyGrib with PC, MacOSX and Linux versions Many data options. Choose the presentation, colours etc to meet your personal likes. Developed for the free XyGrib but it will read both .grb and .grb.bz2 from other sources. It is a good viewer for displaying high resolution data. It is the only viewer I know that can be set to show only values at model gridpointe with no interpolation. This viewer has been developed to handle more GRIB parameters and other formats. |
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!MaxSea  |
The MaxSea viewer is another simple viewer with few frills. There can be problems in getting a key. Start from Zilt, the Dutch Online Magazine Site and be careful to follow the instructions in their guide. |
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Predictwind  |
This is the viewer developed by Predictwind for their offshore app. This is provided free to advertise their wide-ranging weather and weather routing apps. |
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PocketGrib  |
The PocketGrib viewer will open with .grb files from other sources. IOS and Android versions. It has meteograms acilitiea |
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WeatherTrack  |
The WeatherTrack viewer will open with .grb files from other sources. IOS version only. A good clear presentation but does not overlay elements. Particularly good with the RTOFS oceant currents app. Handles current data from RTOFS well, one of the best. |
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LuckGrib  |
The https://luckgrib.com/assets/img/home_image.png is one of the viewers that handles current data, such as from RTOFS, as shown here.. |
The next is not a GRIB viewer in that it is not a standalone piece of software for viewing NWP output. However, it is sufficiently different to be worth showing here.
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Meteociel  |
Meteociel is one of the most comprehensive ways of seeing forecasts from many sources worldwide. Some of the wind charts are in conventional vector format but many are in stream-line form as shown here. These will not be to everyone’s taste but they do show well the variability that exists in the weather. |
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