Shipping Forecast Sea Areas
The 31 named sea areas used in the Met Office Shipping Forecast, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, cover the waters around the British Isles and out into the North Atlantic and North Sea. Southampton sits on the boundary of Wight and within reach of Portland and Plymouth — all three highlighted below. Click any area on the map for its name, or use the table underneath to browse the full broadcast order.
Boundaries plotted from the Met Office's published sea area co-ordinates (revised 4 February 2002). Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom.
Where the Areas Came From
The system dates back to 1861, when Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy — the Met Office's founding director, and formerly captain of HMS Beagle on Darwin's voyage — set up the first storm warning service after a violent gale wrecked the clipper Royal Charter off Anglesey in 1859 with the loss of over 450 lives. The sea areas themselves have been adjusted several times since: North Utsire and South Utsire were added in 1984 as North Sea gas and oil traffic grew, and the area once called Finisterre was renamed FitzRoy in 2002, after the International Maritime Organization pointed out it was being confused with a different, Spanish-run "Finisterre" forecast area further south — a fitting name given who started the whole system.
How to Read the Forecast
Each shipping forecast follows the same fixed structure: a general synopsis of pressure systems and their movement, then sea area reports read in a consistent geographic order — starting at Viking in the far north-east and working broadly clockwise around the British Isles down through the Channel, out into the Western Approaches, and up the Irish Sea to Faeroes and Southeast Iceland. Each area's report gives wind direction and force (in Beaufort scale terms — see our Beaufort Scale page), weather, and visibility, in that fixed order every time. For the current forecast text and audio, see our own Shipping Forecast page.
All 31 Areas, in Broadcast Order
| # | Area | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viking | North Sea, north-east |
| 2 | North Utsire | North Sea, off Norway |
| 3 | South Utsire | North Sea, off Norway |
| 4 | Forties | North Sea, central |
| 5 | Cromarty | North Sea, off NE Scotland |
| 6 | Forth | North Sea, off SE Scotland |
| 7 | Tyne | North Sea, off NE England |
| 8 | Dogger | North Sea, central |
| 9 | Fisher | North Sea, east-central |
| 10 | German Bight | North Sea, off Germany/Denmark |
| 11 | Humber | North Sea, off E England |
| 12 | Thames | North Sea, off SE England |
| 13 | Dover | Strait of Dover |
| 14 | Wight | English Channel, central — Southampton's own area |
| 15 | Portland | English Channel, central-west |
| 16 | Plymouth | English Channel, west / Western Approaches |
| 17 | Biscay | Bay of Biscay |
| 18 | Trafalgar | Off Iberian coast (occasional area) |
| 19 | FitzRoy | Western Approaches, south |
| 20 | Sole | Western Approaches |
| 21 | Lundy | Bristol Channel / SW approaches |
| 22 | Fastnet | Off SW Ireland |
| 23 | Irish Sea | Irish Sea |
| 24 | Shannon | Off W Ireland |
| 25 | Rockall | North Atlantic, west of Scotland |
| 26 | Malin | Off NW Ireland / Scotland |
| 27 | Hebrides | Off NW Scotland |
| 28 | Bailey | North Atlantic |
| 29 | Fair Isle | North Sea/Atlantic, between Orkney and Shetland |
| 30 | Faeroes | North Atlantic, near Faroe Islands |
| 31 | Southeast Iceland | North Atlantic, near Iceland |
Wight, Portland and Plymouth — Our Local Waters
Southampton Water and the Solent fall right on the Wight/Portland boundary, which is why local sailors and forecasters alike keep half an eye on both areas rather than just one. Wight covers the central English Channel from Selsey Bill round past the Isle of Wight to just past Portland Bill; Portland picks up from there westward to Start Point; Plymouth continues from Start Point out past Land's End into the Western Approaches. A wind forecast to back or veer through the day often means checking all three in sequence to see which way a system is tracking along the Channel.