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National Weather Service: Forecasts
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For many years, most scanners have included an instant access feature for National Weather Service (NWS) broadcasts. Scanning enthusiasts have come to rely on this easy accessibility, especially if threatening weather might be in the forecast. The NWS' SAME technology takes this concept and expands it exponentially.
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Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) send their graphical forecasts to a national server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD). This is a collection of sensible weather elements such as: maximum and minimum temperature, humidity, cloud cover, probability of precipitation, weather type, and wind direction and speed. In addition to viewing ([2]) gridded weather data via the internet, more advanced users can decode the individual grids using a "GRIB2 decoder" which can output data as shapefiles, netCDF, GrADS, float files, and comma separated variable files. Specific points in the digital database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service ([3]). These capabilities have greatly increased the audience of NDFD data. The NWS has received some criticism from commercial weather vendors for providing graphical forecast data free of charge.
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The nation's first online weather service, Weather Underground is committed to delivering the most reliable, accurate weather information possible. The company's state-of-the-art technology monitors conditions and forecasts for over 60,000 cities worldwide. In addition to providing free, real-time online weather information to millions of Web users, Weather Underground offers a variety of newspaper weather services and custom website weather packages.
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The Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) is a joint effort of the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Department of Defense (DOD). The ASOS serves as the nation's primary surface weather observing network. It is designed to support weather forecast activities and aviation operations and, at the same time, support the needs of the meteorological, hydrological, and climatological research communities. ASOS was especially designed for the safety of the aviation community, therefore the sites are almost always located near airport runways. The system transmits routine hourly observations along with special observations when conditions exceed preselected weather element thresholds (e.g. the visibility decreases to less than 3 miles).
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The U. S. Army operated the first national weather service in 1878 - the "observing-sergeants." They were chosen because "military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity and accuracy." When the civilian national weather service was created in 1890 it was suggested that the name be "Weather Reporting Office of the National Government (WRONG)" - honest! "You have to have an ego to forecast the weather. But, you must be a good loser, too, because you can lose 80% of the time."
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A weather page devoted to national and regional Radar and Severe Weather links, models and severe weather forecasts. Includes links to the finest weather sources on the net. Graphics based. Radar Summary with Watch Boxes. Ohio State University National Radar Composite.
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