OFS MCP Server

MCP server for NOAA's Operational Forecast System (OFS) — regional hydrodynamic ocean models covering US coastal waters.

Status: Ready

Overview

OFS comprises ~15 regional ocean models providing 48–72 hour forecasts of water levels, temperature, and salinity for US coastal bays, estuaries, and offshore waters. This server provides AI assistants with access to model metadata, cycle availability, and forecast extraction at geographic points.

Supported Models

All models run 4× daily (2× for WCOFS) at 00, 06, 12, 18 UTC with 6-minute output resolution.

Tools

Data Access

Model data is accessed via two strategies:

• NOAA THREDDS OPeNDAP (https://opendap.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/thredds/): lazy remote access to BEST aggregations (most efficient, only loads requested variables/points)
• AWS S3 (noaa-nos-ofs-pds): direct download for single forecast timesteps

Quick Start

cd servers/ofs-mcp
uv sync
uv run ofs-mcp

MCP Client Config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ofs": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/ofs-mcp", "run", "ofs-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

• "What OFS models cover the Chesapeake Bay?"
• "List available CBOFS forecast cycles for today"
• "Get the water level forecast at lat 38.98, lon -76.48 from CBOFS"
• "Compare CBOFS water level with CO-OPS observations at station 8571892"
• "What OFS models are available for San Francisco Bay?"
• "Get temperature forecast at lat 37.8, lon -122.4 from SFBOFS"

Variables

All models provide surface-layer output:

Datum Notes

Most OFS models use NAVD88 as their vertical datum. CO-OPS observations use either NAVD or MSL depending on the station. Small systematic offsets (1–5 cm) are expected when comparing model output to observations due to datum differences and distance between CO-OPS stations and model grid points.

Data Sources

• NOAA OFS Overview
• AWS S3: noaa-nos-ofs-pds
• NOAA THREDDS
• CO-OPS API

License

MIT