Observations

Dear Diary
What have the Americans got against releasing their observational data? They are so generous with every other kind of weather data they generate, be it satellite imagery, SSTSST Sea Surface Temperatures, sea ice, ENSOENSO El Niño–Southern Oscillation is an irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics. The warming phase of the sea temperature is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña., CO2CO2 Carbon dioxide (chemical formula CO2) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. and their GFSGFS The Global Forecast System is a global numerical weather prediction system containing a global computer model and variational analysis run by the United States National Weather Service. NWPNWP Numerical weather prediction uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions. data, but for some reason the NWSNWS National weather service definition, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that is responsible for meteorological observations. don’t, and have never liked sharing observational data in the form of SYNOPSYNOP SYNOP (surface synoptic observations) is a numerical code (called FM-12 by WMO) used for reporting weather observations made by manned and automated weather stations. SYNOP reports are typically mad hourly and consist of groups of numbers (and slashes where data is not available) describing general weather information, such as the temperature, barometric pressure and visibility at a weather station. observations, which to me seems a great pity. As you can see the observations they do release makes for a very thin network indeed across America when compared to the AWSAWS Automatic Weather Station network of their Canadian counterparts north of the 50th parallel. Over the years it’s got worse with fewer and fewer stations being released, they love METARsMETAR METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting. Raw METAR is the most common format in the world for the transmission of observational weather data. of course but these are a poor substitute for SYNOP observations, and really for aviation and not meteorological purposes.