Thanks to the efforts of Geoff Manikin and Keith Brill and many others we can make the following announcement:
The Mesoscale Modeling Branch of NCEP's Environmental Modeling Center is pleased to announce the launch of the upgraded Eta forecast meteogram web site located at http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/meteograms
This site features twice-daily updated (00Z and 12Z runs) time-series forecasts for 1194 individual stations within the Eta domain. A complete list of the stations can be found via a link at the above URL or directly at http://sgi62.wwb.noaa.gov:8080/BUFR_TAF/staids_final.NO_MOS.html
Going to the page presents you with a checkerboard of 12 geographical regions. Click on the desired region for a closeup map. From there, click on the star of the desired location. (note: moving your icon around the map will tell you the 6-digit station ID associated with the particular star at the bottom, assuming you are using a decent browser.) From there, you reach the page of the particular station (which can be bookmarked) where there is a pair of small sample plots next to each other. The one on the left is for choosing the surface forecast display (meteogram), and the one on the right is for choosing the display of the upper-air forecast (vertical time-section). Note that these are sample plots and NOT reduced-size plots of the forecasts for that day. Click on either the surface or upper-air map to get the actual forecasts for that particular station from the most recent model cycle.
Full explanations of the variables and scales can be found on the pages for all of the individual stations, but a brief discussion follows here. The surface meteogram plot contains 5 meteograms. The top graph has the 2-meter temperature (red) and dew point (green) in degrees Celsius. Trace 2 contains the hourly total (blue) and convective precipitation (orange-red) in millimeters as well as the 10 meter wind in knots and the weather-type symbol (snowflake, rain drop, sleet pellet, etc...) if applicable. Trace 3 features the mean sea-level pressure (orange) in millibars and storm-relative helicity (light blue) in m**2/s**2. Trace 4 contains the surface horizontal visibility (red) from the Stoelinga-Warner algorithm in kilometers and the cloud base pressure (purple) in millibars. Finally, the bottom plot has the cape (brown) and convective inhibition (blue) in J/KG. Note that for the traces with multiple paramters with different scales, check whether the name/color of the parameter is listed on either the right or the left side - the scale is the one listed on the same side as the name/color of the parameter.
The colored areas on the upper-air plots show cloud ice (blue/purple colors) and cloud water (green/yellow/red colors). The scale are found on the explanation page. Wind barbs in knots are displayed, as is the 0 degree C iostherm (solid line) and the -15 degree C isotherm (dashed line). ***Important Note***: the time axis on the upper-air plots is REVERSED so that the initial time is on the far right.
It must be noted that 2400 GIF files must be produced twice a day for this site, so this amount of processing had to be divided among many EMC machines. As a result, there are many opportunities for glitches in the processing, and you should ALWAYS check the start time on the bottom of the plot to verify that you are looking at the model cycle you think you are! (Remember that the start time for the upper-air plots is on the right side.) Because the processing is divided up among many machines, do not assume that the surface and upper- air plots for a particular station will become available at the same time. Just because, for example, the surface plot at a particular station is from the most recent model cycle, there is no guarantee that the upper-air plot for that station or any of the plots for any of the nearby stations are from that most recent cycle as well. Most of a 12Z cycle's plots will be available by around 18Z, and most of a 00Z cycle's plots will availble by about 6Z. Again, some will be available earlier than others, but check the date closely.
Comments and criticism are welcomed. Eventually, we aim to speed up the processing and then perhaps update the images 4 times per day (use the 06 and 18Z model cycles). If you have any thoughts on how to improve the site or would like to suggest a new site to add, please send mail to geoffrey.manikin@noaa.gov
Reminder: These displays are NOT official NWS forecasts. They
are direct displays of atmospheric fields & parameters predicted by NCEP's computer with the Mesoscale Eta Model. They must only be used as GUIDANCE and should be interpreted by a qualified meteorologist before a forecast is made.