Phil Layton wrote:
"Dave Lester" wrote in message
...
Hi

I had this site http://tinyurl.com/72j6d bookmarked, but now it comes up
with an Error 403 message so I'm looking for somewhere which updates the
UK synops (and metars) every hour.

TIA


Hi Dave,
I thought that Sembach stopped the synops quite some time ago....pity about
the site as I used the Metars for updating my digital atmosphere map - and
am now left with MeteoCentre which doesnt have the same coverage. Sembach
has gone down for a few days before - don't think, though, with this error
message.

Phil



I have noticed that since I started decoding synops back in 2001, for
which I solely use the 'Climatic' part of the code, slowly but surely
the number of locations that appear in the regular sites, FSU, Dupage,
Albany, has declined. The lists that form all my Worldwide reports have
not changed much since I started, yet you can now see many gaps in the
data, even for parts of Europe. Holland and Belgium seem to have pulled
many out, I guess there still about, but I assumed these were the freely
available ones allowed under Resolution 40 of the WMO. I can never
understand why FSU, Dupage etc, don't include ALL the ones that are
allowed, eg Canary Islands, I have e-mailed a couple of times over the
years but never had a reply, maybe I'm missing the point somewhere.

I wonder sometimes how much longer any of this data will be available
for, especially with changes to the whole way of reporting coming in at
some date in the future. So I guess there will come a time when I'll
have to throw the towel in. That will be an extremely sad day for me
personally as there is nowhere I can find such data for the world in the
format I use on the internet. I would like to do more, but I don't feel
confident enough in the data sources to put any more time into it for
now. Maybe it's frowned upon what I do by the 'industry', I don't know,
no one has ever said?

I do find it extremely irritating that so much petty secrecy is put on
this data, after all, how many people are really interested in such
detailed reporting? Just a few of us enthusiasts who have no other
reasons other than a passion and interest in the subject. I'm sure most
of the 'commercial' users, Metcheck etc, pay for this data, so i don't
see the problem.

Anyway, I'll just keep on going for now and see how things turn out. Who
know maybe someone will feel sorry for me and offer me a job grin I've
always fancied working from home!

Oh well, that's that off my chest.

Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net