Weather
This site is being migrated from my previous wiki at https://kevininscoe.com/ke3vin/pmwiki.php/Main/Weather
Skywarn
I am a trained Skywarn spotter for the National Weather Service.
National Weather Service (NWS) spotters are civilian volunteers who, after taking an online or onsite training course conducted by the NWS (there is a Basic level and an Advances level course sometimes taken together on the same day. Each course is typically three to four hours long) are authorized to report their weather observations directly to the NWS (using a special telephone number or sometimes via ham radio), especially during particularly bad weather conditions. Many times, the fact that something like a tornado has actually formed and touched the ground is first reported to the NWS by trained weather spotters.
See http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/ for more information.
Spotter information statement
Skywarn spotters sometimes are requested the NWS to monitor weather conditions if bad weather is anticipated. This is referred to as "spotter activation".
Weather spotter activation means that the NWS is monitoring weather conditions in a particular area and they want trained spotters to be on the alert for monitoring and reporting adverse weather conditions. This is because, with all the instrumentation available to NWS personnel, sometimes the best indications of current severe weather conditions are from people on the ground actually observing these conditions.
To know if your particular area will be requesting activation a bulletin is put out at least daily and often updated throughout the day referred to as the "Hazard Weather Outlook". A sample of one is found at https://www.weather.gov/mfl/ghwo. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazardous_weather_outlook Hazardous Weather Outlook.
The HWO product from the NWS is usually only published to the public via the NWS various web sites. Sometimes it is available via FTP access and some weather forecast offices (WFO) will email the daily HWO bulletin to registered trained spotters.
Even if you are not a trained spotter it is still good to know the hazardous outlook of the area where you will be that day.
The part of the HWO that indicates if Skywarn activation is in a block of text titled ".SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...".
Since my local office does not provide the daily email of the HWO I wanted a way to get a daily email to know if activation was likely that day. A long time ago I used to send this to a text pager I carried.
Script
To that end I wrote a Python 3 to alert me on days that spotter activation may be required based on the NWS HWO product for my forecast office (WFO or WSFO).
See https://github.com/KevinPInscoe/WXTools.
I have found the text HWO product to be reliably available via a properly formatted URL.
I can modify my script on a given day to include additional forecasts by the local WFO when I am traveling. Or I can put in the URL below (modify the "issuedby=" in the URL) and change the WFO or simply visit the top site at http://www.weather.gov/ and put in the zip code or city name for your current location and click down to Hazardous Weather.
Since I spend 10% of my time in Deltona, FL and 90% in Greeneville, TN I monitor both offices statements.
The two offices I monitor are Melbourne, FL coded as "MLB" at http://www.weather.gov/mlb/ and Morristown, TN coded as "MRX" at http://www.weather.gov/mrx/.
The text only HWO for MLB is at http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=MLB&product=HWO&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0.
The text only HWO for MRX is at http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=MRX&product=HWO&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0
There is also a RAW text source for MLB but I am not sure how long it will last:
MLB: http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/raw/fl/flus42.kmlb.hwo.mlb.txt
MRX: http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/raw/fl/flus44.kmrx.hwo.mrx.txt
Notice the "issuedby=" in the URL. That is where you would put in the code for your local forecast office. Forecast offices nearest you and their codes can be found at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/nws/wfos.html.
You will also need to know the "Warning Zone(s)" you are interested in being alerted as some WFO HWO bulletin's contain multiple warning zones in them. An example of this would be the bulletin for Charleston, SC (WFO CHS) at http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=MLB&product=HWO&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0.
Note the multiple spotter information statements:
The Bash shell script:
The script is now at https://github.com/KevinPInscoe/WXTools
The output which I will see in email similar to (actual email received 2017-07-20):
HWO statement for MLB... .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotters are requested to monitor the weather and self activate if needed. In addition, please report any rainfall amounts greater than 3 inches to the National Weather Service. For full outlook click on http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=MLB&product=HWO&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0 HWO statement for MRX... .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation will not be needed. For full outlook click on http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=MRX&product=HWO&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0
The output of the script is sent to via email daily at 7:30am local time via cron (in Linux) but you could run it manually or also on Windows or Mac using a scheduler.
See https://github.com/KevinPInscoe/WXTools/blob/master/sample_cron_for_spotter_info
This could also be sent to Twitter or other such alerting media.
Observation
Nexrad Radar
"NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next-Generation Radar) is a network of 158 high-resolution Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the United States Department of Commerce. Its technical name is WSR-88D, which stands for Weather Surveillance Radar, 1988, Doppler. NEXRAD detects precipitation and atmospheric movement or wind. It returns data which when processed can be displayed in a mosaic map which shows patterns of precipitation and its movement. The radar system operates in two basic modes, selectable by the operator: a slow-scanning clear-air mode for analyzing air movements when there is little or no activity in the area, and a precipitation mode with a faster scan time for tracking active weather. NEXRAD has an increased emphasis on automation, including the use of algorithms and automated volume scans. Second generation NEXRAD radar systems will have the capability to optically detect hailstone size down to the square mile." - Intellicast
Details on the NEXRAD system are available in Federal Meteorological Handbook No. 11.
There are additional handbooks (publications) available for download from the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (http://www.ofcm.gov/publications/fmh/allfmh2.htm).
Four volumes are available:
- A - System Concepts, Responsibilities, and Procedures
- B - Doppler Radar Theory and Meteorology
- C - Products and Algorithms
- D - Unit Description and Operational Analysis
The official Interface Control Documents (ICDs) contain detailed information on the binary data formats and product specifications.
Imagery
Public - https://radar.weather.gov/
Data
Weather Radar Applications - http://www.ou.edu/radar/z_r_relationships.pdf
The netCDF data format (https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/) is a set of software libraries and machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data. The Java NEXRAD Viewer allows users to export Level II or Level III radar data into netCDF format for later manipulation using programs such as MATLAB.
Archived data
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/radar-data/nexrad
Reporting
Storm reports
- National Weather Service Local Storm Report Application - https://nwschat.weather.gov/lsr/
- Storm Prediction Center Storm Reports https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/today.html
- Local Storm Reports interactive https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/reports/
Forecast
Code
My code (to be migrated from SVN) is at https://github.com/KevinPInscoe/WXTools.