Brief history of weather codes and symbols that are internationally agreed across all countries (well actually 189). These are used by professional meteorologists, and have precise semantics. they are robust and ergonomic against bad reproduction in low light levels.

1. Weather Symbols
Chris Little, Met Office, Co-chair OGC Met. & Oceanography Domain WG
© Crown copyright Met Office

2. Why me?
Co-Chair of OGC Met Ocean Domain Working Group
(with Marie-Françoise Voidrot, Météo-France)
WMO Regional Association VI Co-Rapporteur for
Information Systems & Services
(with Leonid Bezruk, Russia)
WMO Focal Point for RTH Exeter & GISC Exeter
Been around a long time
(I am partly to blame for GRIB, BUFR & CREX and even
some weather symbols)

3. © Crown copyright Met Office

4. © Crown copyright Met Office

5. Beaufort Wind Speed Scale: Sea
Speed km/hr knots Term Sea
0 Calm Calm Calm Sea like mirror
1 2-5 1-3 Light Air Ripples with appearance of scales: no foam
crest
2 6-11 4-6 Light Breeze Small wavelets; crests of glassy
appearance, not breaking
3 12-18 7-10 Gentle Breeze Large wavelets; crests begin to break;
scattered whitecaps.
4 19-30 11-16 Moderate Breeze Small waves, becoming longer; numerous
whitecaps.
5 31-39 17-21 Fresh Breeze Moderate waves, taking longer form; many
whitecaps; some spray
6 40-50 22-27 Strong Breeze Larger waves forming; whitecaps
everywhere; more spray.
7 51-61 28-33 Near Gale Sea heaps up; white foam from breaking
waves begins to be blown in
streaks.
8 62-74 34-40 Gale Moderately high waves of greater length;
edges of crests begin to break into
spindrift; foam is blown in well-marked
streaks.
9 75-87 41-47 Strong Gale High waves; sea begins to roll; dense
streaks of foam; spray may reduce
visibility.
10 88-102 48-55 Storm Very high waves with overhanging crests;
sea takes white appearance as foam is
blown in very dense streaks; rolling is
heavy and visibility is reduced
© Crown copyright Met Office

6. Beaufort’s Weather Code
1820-1825 version
b. Blue sky
c. Clear, transparent atmosphere
ci. Cirrus clouds
cl. Cloudy
cu.Cumulus clouds
d. Mist (damp air)
Dk Dark weather but atmosphere clear
f. Foggy
f: Dense Fog
g. Gloomy weather
h. Haze
© Crown copyright Met Office

7. Daily Weather reports
© Crown copyright Met Office

8. © Crown copyright Met Office

9. © Crown copyright Met Office

10. © Crown copyright Met Office

11. WMO Data Formats
SYNOP: Standard meteorological hourly surface weather reports
SMUK01 EGRR AAXX 08214 03148 46/// /0507 11034 21039 92050=
AAXX 08214 03204 42575 72425 10055 20006 39918 49937 58006 878// 92050 333 55300 20140
82822 85631 87642 91038 90710 91138=
SIGMET: Aviation ad hoc significant weather report
WSBY31 UMMS 090205
UMMV SIGMET 1 VALID 090200/090600 UMMS-UMMV MINSK FIR SEV ICE (FZRA) FCST E OF
E026 BLW FL100 MOV NE 30KMH NC=
METAR: Aviation standard half hourly weather reports
EGBB 091320Z 25011KT CAVOK 06/01 Q1011=
EGCC 091320Z 26012KT 9999 FEW022 06/01 Q1010 NOSIG=
TAF: Aviation Terminal Aerodrome Forecast
ESKN 091130Z 0912/1012 21007KT 9999 SCT020 PROB30 0922/1005 BKN012 BECMG 1007/1009
24016G26KT=
ESMS 091130Z 0912/1012 20010KT 1200 BR BKN002 PROB40 0913/1012 9999 BKN016=
ESSA 091210Z 0912/1012 20010KT 9999 FEW012 BKN025 TEMPO 0912/0915 BKN012 PROB40
0922/1006 BKN008 BECMG 1001/1003 20017G28KT=
CREX: modernised, table-driven data format
KULC02 RJTD 070244
CREX++
T000101 A008 D07043++
47 646 TATENO 3606 14013 00031 2011 01 07 02 44 003 125 00 00 0343 190++
7777
BUFR, GRIB are binary, table driven, formats for massive data volumes, not suitable
© Crown copyright
for human inspection
Met Office

12. WMO binary, table-driven,
formats GRIB, BUFR
© Crown copyright Met Office

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20. Where are they defined?
• http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/DPFS/documents/485_Vo
• Are there any in WikiMedia or WikiCommons?
• About 150, put up by NOAA, a Czech and a German
• E.g.
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Symbol_code_ww_05.svg
• Resources?
• http://external.opengeospatial.org/twiki_public/MetOceanDWG/Fea
• Mainly low res, crude vector representations
• http://external.opengeospatial.org/twiki_public/MetOceanDWG/WM

21. What to do?
• Put all WMO weather symbols on WikiPedia/Media/Commons
• As SVG
• With PNG fall backs
• With some semantic info to relate back to strict WMO definitions
• Build some SKOS conceptual models if you want
• Probably need to ask an old style meteorologists to get concept
hierarchies correct enough
• Start on intelligent apps to display correct symbols

22. Questions and answers
© Crown copyright Met Office

23. WMO considering CAP
Common Alerting Protocol
• Developed by OASIS
• XML Based
• Version 1.0 -> 1.1 -> 1.2 -> 2.0
• Version 1.2 = ITU X.1303 + Amendment
• Not much exposure outside N America
• Altitude measured in Feet by default!
• Support for multiple languages
• Geospatial stuff (points, boxes, polygons) now
better
• WMO Second workshop in Geneva, 2011
© Crown copyright Met Office

24. Other Stuff
• WOW: Met Office ‘Crowd sourcing’ of weather
obs http://
www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/wow.html
• Met Office stores and shares, and Quality Controls
• No OGC standards, only WMO data formats
• DataPoint XML marked up point data, current and
forecast. See Jeremy

25. © Crown copyright Met Office

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31. © Crown copyright Met Office

34. Demo links: GISCs, DCPCs
UK Met Office user portal
http://wis.metoffice.gov.uk/openwis-user-portal/srv/en/main.home
Search and find, then self registration for delivery
Météo-France user portal
http://wisp.meteo.fr:8080/openwis-user-portal/srv/en/main.home
DWD Deutscher Wetter Dienst
http://gisc.dwd.de
CMA China Meteorological Administration 中国气象局
http://wisportal.cma.gov.cn/wis/
JMA Japan Meteorological Agency 気象庁
http://www.wis-jma.go.jp/cms/
EUMETSAT EO Portal
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/DataProducts/ProductNavigator/index.htm
Norway IPY
© Crown copyright Met Office