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

Dave L

"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.


.... I don't think there is a site (for public / 'free' access) that
updates SYNOP's every hour; for METAR's, there are many, and you'll get
half-hourly for some; try ....

http://www.lfv.se/templates/LFV_Info...____18344.aspx

http://weather.uwyo.edu/surface/meteogram/europe.html

http://www.ogimet.com/index.phtml.en

Martin.


--
FAQ & Glossary for uk.sci.weather at:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/uswfaqfr.htm
and
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm

"Martin Rowley" wrote in
message ...

... I don't think there is a site (for public / 'free' access) that
updates SYNOP's every hour; for METAR's, there are many, and you'll
get half-hourly for some; try ....

http://www.lfv.se/templates/LFV_Info...____18344.aspx

http://weather.uwyo.edu/surface/meteogram/europe.html

http://www.ogimet.com/index.phtml.en


.... and I forgot the excellent:-

http://www.xcweather.co.uk/

Martin.


--
FAQ & Glossary for uk.sci.weather at:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/uswfaqfr.htm
and
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm

"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

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

"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
news:dt0d0m$50$1

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.
....
[long, but eventually on-topic]

In the 1950's, after my family moved up here to Berkshire (from
Cornwall), once a week my Dad & I would walk up the end of the lane and
use the call-box outside the small sub-post office to call my Grandma
who lived in Salcombe, South Devon. The procedure was that you lifted
the receiver, waited for the local operator to answer, then asked for
'Trunks'; when the trunk operator answered, you asked for the number
your required, she would tell you to wait and have 1 shilling and
fourpence (or whatever) ready, then at the appropriate time, you would
have to insert the money into the slots in the telephone base unit; once
satisfied the correct money was in play, the call would be connected: if
you got the 'go ahead caller', then you pressed button 'A'; if the call
was not answered and you wished to abandon the call, you pressed button
'B' and got your money back.

Nowadays, you use the mobile. . . . . .

The point of that little excursion into history is that SYNOP's,
METAR's, TAF's, etc. etc., belong to an age of 50-baud teleprinter
broadcasts (and earlier W/T morse telegraphy). We don't have
teleprinters clattering away in offices churning out reams of paper with
coloured lines down the side - it all comes up on a screen in the blink
of an eye. Many here have their own weather stations, and these can be
interrogated by anyone on the 'net; data transfer (and compression)
techniques are so far advanced now that there is no need to encode the
data for humans to re-interpret: a near-continuous stream of data
relating to temperature, pressure, humidity, cloud structure, visibility
etc., can (and is) passed to weather analysis centres at frightening
speed where it is ingested directly into the models. Many meteorological
services (including the UK) are planning systems whereby data sensors
are polled centrally for the various atmospheric variables and the data
ingested in real-time directly into models, workstations etc.

I could go on, but you get the drift; don't get too hung up on the SYNOP
code - wonderful though it is, it won't last for ever - plans are well
advanced for the migration from the traditional alphanumeric codes (TAC)
to binary formats for the transfer of meteorological data - see ...

http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/WMOCodes/M...rationPlan.doc

Martin.

Thanks Martin, I'll have a full read of that later and I don't disagree
about things must move on.
What I did look for straight away was the ';schedule' and from what I
can see the completion of this migration programme is November 2010
(Page 30)
I now understand a bit more the differnce between BUFR and CREX, the
first being the binary code the second the decoding method.
Do we know whether this NEW coding is going to be available publicly,
or a least a watered down "Res 40" version?
Which leads me onto my greatest fear, I'm going to need a degree in
computer programming to have the slightest chance of keeping up with
the times and on a scale of 1 to 100 I'm probably on 0.5 ! I just wish
I could break through this barrier of understanding :-(

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

Martin Rowley wrote:
"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
news:dt0d0m$50$1

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.
...
[long, but eventually on-topic]

In the 1950's, after my family moved up here to Berkshire (from
Cornwall), once a week my Dad & I would walk up the end of the lane and
use the call-box outside the small sub-post office to call my Grandma
who lived in Salcombe, South Devon. The procedure was that you lifted
the receiver, waited for the local operator to answer, then asked for
'Trunks'; when the trunk operator answered, you asked for the number
your required, she would tell you to wait and have 1 shilling and
fourpence (or whatever) ready, then at the appropriate time, you would
have to insert the money into the slots in the telephone base unit; once
satisfied the correct money was in play, the call would be connected: if
you got the 'go ahead caller', then you pressed button 'A'; if the call
was not answered and you wished to abandon the call, you pressed button
'B' and got your money back.

Nowadays, you use the mobile. . . . . .

The point of that little excursion into history is that SYNOP's,
METAR's, TAF's, etc. etc., belong to an age of 50-baud teleprinter
broadcasts (and earlier W/T morse telegraphy). We don't have
teleprinters clattering away in offices churning out reams of paper with
coloured lines down the side - it all comes up on a screen in the blink
of an eye. Many here have their own weather stations, and these can be
interrogated by anyone on the 'net; data transfer (and compression)
techniques are so far advanced now that there is no need to encode the
data for humans to re-interpret: a near-continuous stream of data
relating to temperature, pressure, humidity, cloud structure, visibility
etc., can (and is) passed to weather analysis centres at frightening
speed where it is ingested directly into the models. Many meteorological
services (including the UK) are planning systems whereby data sensors
are polled centrally for the various atmospheric variables and the data
ingested in real-time directly into models, workstations etc.

I could go on, but you get the drift; don't get too hung up on the SYNOP
code - wonderful though it is, it won't last for ever - plans are well
advanced for the migration from the traditional alphanumeric codes (TAC)
to binary formats for the transfer of meteorological data - see ...

http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/WMOCodes/M...rationPlan.doc

Martin.

Keith (Southend)G wrote:

Which leads me onto my greatest fear, I'm going to need a degree in
computer programming to have the slightest chance of keeping up with
the times and on a scale of 1 to 100 I'm probably on 0.5 ! I just wish
I could break through this barrier of understanding :-(

Trust me, a degree in computer programming may not help - I was trying
to write some code to decode METARs but it is extremely complex, mainly
because there are many METARs which are not standard. A more standard
standard would be much easier to parse electronically (PS. I have a
degree in Computer Science and I'm doing a PhD in it now!)

Jonathan
Canterbury

"Keith (Southend)G" wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks Martin, I'll have a full read of that later and I don't
disagree
about things must move on.
What I did look for straight away was the ';schedule' and from what I
can see the completion of this migration programme is November 2010
(Page 30)

.... which means we ought to see things happening fairly soon now. The
UKMO are actively seeking to upgrade data collection & dissemination and
this would dovetail with the changes. Whether some 'looky-likey' code
would be output for those NWS's that can't handle the BUFR/CREX format I
don't know, but even that would have a limited lifetime - what usually
happens is that 'developed' nations help the less fortunate to catch up
so that all can migrate to the new procedures.

I don't know if Julian (and former colleagues in Exeter) is/are looking
in, but this would make a good article for 'Weather' by someone in the
Met Office?

Martin.

Thanks all for the suggestions, being 'old school' I much prefer the
raw synop data rather than the metars. Still, better than nothing.

Dave L

"Martin Rowley" wrote in
message ...

"Keith (Southend)G" wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks Martin, I'll have a full read of that later and I don't
disagree
about things must move on.
What I did look for straight away was the ';schedule' and from what I
can see the completion of this migration programme is November 2010
(Page 30)

... which means we ought to see things happening fairly soon now. The
UKMO are actively seeking to upgrade data collection & dissemination
and this would dovetail with the changes. Whether some 'looky-likey'
code would be output for those NWS's that can't handle the BUFR/CREX
format I don't know, but even that would have a limited lifetime -
what usually happens is that 'developed' nations help the less
fortunate to catch up so that all can migrate to the new procedures.

I don't know if Julian (and former colleagues in Exeter) is/are
looking in, but this would make a good article for 'Weather' by
someone in the Met Office?

Martin.