FAQ for MesoWest Surface Weather Maps

• Q: When I choose the network to be SNOTEL, no observations are displayed?
• A: Since the most recent SNOTEL observations may be more than 1 hour old, click on the Time Options near the lower left of the lefthand menu bar and change the Reports in last: option to be 3 hours or longer.

• Q: The plotting convention for wind barbs doesn't seem right. What do the wind barbs mean?
• A: A full barb represents 5 m/s (or 10 kts); a half barb represents 2.5 m/s (or 5 kts). That keeps the barbs roughly the same no matter which units are selected and helps to provide more detail on wind features when metric units are used.

• Q: How do I grab, save, or print an image for other use?
• A: You can now click on "Print Maps" to bring up the map you are looking at on a new page to print.

• Q:I just want to see what the weather is now and maybe look to see what it was a year ago. How do I do that?
• A: These displays provide access in a convenient and visually intuitive way to current and retrospective surface weather data stored in the MesoWest database. The most recent observations ending at a specific time are displayed. A single query to the MesoWest database collects all the observations within a user defined region for a number of parameters (temperature, wind, relative humidity, etc.). A tabular listing allows users to search for particular stations or to sort by location or weather condition (coldest temperatures, highest winds, etc.). Mouseovers and pop up boxes provide access to additional data as well as estimates of observation quality.

• Q: How come I can't find the tabular listings? Have they been removed?
  
• A: All of the tabular displays, including the Current Weather Summary that was the default display, are still available. Use the pull down menus in the top red bar to select a particular tabular display such as "Current Weather Summary" under the "Product" and then click "Go".
  
  
• Q: I know there should be more stations appearing on the map. Does the map interface omit stations?
  
• A: Yes. At the outset, the map defaults to NWS and Raws stations (Regional RWIS stations for road weather) only to provide a fast response. In order to view all stations available, select the "All Networks" settings option.
  
  
• Q: I've selected "All Networks" for a region, but some stations are still not showing. What's up?
  
• A: The map defaults to stations that have reported within the past hour to provide a fast response for most applications. Some stations do not report hourly, so their data are not always displayed. Under the "Reports within last" menu setting, select a longer time interval. Remember to check the valid time of the observation by rolling over or clicking on the station.
  
  
• Q: The data looks wacky, but the quality check says it is "ok"? What is going on?
• A: The quality checking is to catch really bad observations as the data are received. It is a pretty crude approach focused on temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and pressure. Precipitation amounts can be really tough to quality check in real time, so we don't provide QC information on precipitation data at this time.
  
  
• Q: What happened to the graphs underneath the tabular list of data? Did they disappear?
• A: No. The graphs of weather conditions had to be changed to use a new type of plotting software. They can now be found by clicking on the "Change to Graphical Display" link on the left margin of a station's interface. For more information on the graphical display, see the Station Time Series Display help page.
  
  
• Q: A message pops up on the Surface Weather Map stating that there is no data when stations should pop up on the map. What's wrong?
• A: If this occurs, our database could be experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize in advance and if there are any problems, they will be sorted out as soon as possible. Please view our status page if downtime occurs.
  
  
• Q: I save the Large Fire Incidents information as my profile. When I load my profile, I can't get the big fire icon and window info. Is that normal?
  
• A: Yes, it is normal, since the current version of MesoWest doesn't have the function of saving large fire information in a profile.
  
  
• Q: I set overlays and then modify the time option. When I click "Refresh Data", the overlays disappeared. How could I preserve the overlays information?
  
• A: You could login first and create a profile with overlays, then save it. Now you could change the time option when you load the profile, the profile preserve the overlays information.
  
  
• Q: Could I print a map with data and overlay information?
  
• A: Yes, of course. But you need to save all these information to a profile and load the profile again, then there will be Print Profile button at the top right of the web page. You can also do it by using the profile id without logging in.
  
  

Comments and suggestions to improve MesoWest displays and access to data are encouraged and can be sent to atmos-mesowest@lists.utah.edu.