The Weather Forecasting Forum

Tim,

Just thought I should say, after all your efforts, I have checked some of the issues raised previously, and they have all now been corrected and work ok.

Analysis Menu = Main Menu Titles < less than 5 characters
View Raw data=Works perfectly
Sounding via drop down menu= excellent addition

Keep up the good work the program gets better and better.

Thanks for the feedback!

Tim

Tim,
You have a new and serious problem (as far as surface plotting) that has developed just recently (perhaps with the new text handling module - i.e. raw file view option).

In metar reports, ANYTHING after a carriage return or line feed will NOT plot. That means all detailed temps/dew point info like T01920185, many SLP reports (they are often after a CR/LF), sometimes altimeter, and all cloud group plot data.

Example metar report:
KVCT 241051Z AUTO 34003KT 7SM -TSRA FEW006 BKN029 BKN060 23/23
A2997 RMK AO2 RAB0957 SLP147 P0045 T02280228=
The altimeter, SLP, and even PRECIP will not plot. And the temp will not plot with higher res (based on tenths of degree). And if you have any algorhythms that deal with A02, it will be entirely missed as well.

This occurs importing from all sources except NOAA/NWS, because it does not use line feeds within reports.

BTW - I still get unwanted dashes for the plot location for precip when there is none. This started only on version i. I hope we can make them go away.

I checked into this and see no such problem. The METAR importing routines were not changed in any recent update. I used COD's METAR and examined several stations where important information was split onto the second line, and the data's all there under Quality Control.

If I'm going to pursue this further I need a capture of the Status Window so I can see the URL of the file that supposedly does not plot, as well as a description of which stations you think are having the problem in that particualar file.

I have changed the precip plots to not plot a dash.

Tim

Well, I finally was able to determine that there is a slight formatting thing that makes a difference.
If there are spaces before any secondary lines, then it works okay. If not, that is when it happens.
Well, since normal metar sources have the spaces, I think there is no problem to worry about.

I'll send you an email showing the formatting differences. This text messaging system wouldn't allow leading spaces for an example.

I was fooled when,...
I was ingesting some private sources of metar that, if they had a line feed without the spaces, the problem emerged. And I thought it was a general problem - didn't catch that the spaces made the difference. Sorry about that.

Very strange; I wonder why they would do that. Most sources keep the indented form, which gives us a very efficient and error-free model to import. If one tries to bring in unindented data then every 4-letter group at the start of the line would have to be tested to see if it's a valid ICAO. This takes a lot of processing time. METAR is hodgepodge enough in its many forms throughout the world, so it's hard to think of another method that would work.

Tim