1. Weather Coder III: Fast Dissemination of Manual Observations
Kelly Redmond*, Greg McCurdy*, Grant Kelly*,
Michael Brewer#, Timothy
* Western Regional Climate Center, DRI, Reno NV
# NWS HQ Washington DC, @ NCDC, Asheville NC
6th Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2008 March 3-7

2. Weather Coder III Joint project and partnership between
National Weather Service, NCDC, and NOAA Regional Climate Centers
Web based entry of NWS Cooperative Observer measurements
Direct and immediate input through NWS Gateway to national distribution system
Modeled after NWS Weather Coder II, CoCoRAHS, Canadian COOLTAP
Paperless electronic submission of daily COOP data to NCDC and climate community
Administrative tools for use by Weather Forecast Offices
Data into Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) for climate monitoring
Failover to other RCCs
First steps toward eventual paperless environment
Ability to print local copies of traditional B-91 observer forms
Will integrate data from IV-ROCS telephone-based system
Immediate quality control to directly prevent many of the most common errors

3. Weather Coder III
Designed to honor these basic principles:
Provide efficient, easy-to-use data entry system for participating COOP observers,
Ensure timely availability of COOP data for all customers,
Improve data quality through automated near-real-time QA/QC,
Achieve a paperless electronic data collection, transmission, and archiving system,
Allow system flexibility to meet demands of integrating data from future observing systems.

6. Opening page wxcoder.org demo / demo

7. Welcome to Observer Named Demo

8. Observer Demo selects Grant’s Second Test Station, NV

9. Temp/Mx/Mn
At Obs
Hydro
Precip/snow
Precip
Times
River
Info
Form presented to station
Grant’s Test Site
Now enter observations

10. River info
Soil
Temps
Tmax / Tmin
Weather
Occurrence
Remarks

11. Calendar showing days that have observations

12. Form ready for observer entry (numbers deliberately faint)

13. Form with 2 days opened, precip times, remarks

14. Download a B-91 form from a past month in various formats

15. Printable copy for local storage

16. Observer error, logical inconsistency, TMIN > TOBS

17. Just prior to submission:
Does everything look right?
Then submit

18. Temperature traces are not always sinusoids.
Max and min temperatures not always set in afternoon and morning.
9 am – 9 am
6 pm – 6 pm
Mid-mid

20. Strange day, definite and uncertain precip times, remarks.

21. Lost? Mixed up? Can’t understand ?
Press the help button.

22. Bad Snow Depth
Observer entered 1.0 inch
Whole inches only

23. Made the correction
Now confirm before submittal

24. Hmmmm…
This is a monthly extreme temperature.
Are you sure ??
Please confirm.

25. Email sent to site administrator
Monthly extreme exceeded
This may merit further attention.

26. Remarks are great, but …

27. SRUS53 KLOT
RR3LOT
WxCoder
.A CNNI C DH0800/DC /PPK 0.70/SFK 6.1/SDK 10
.A1 : Total snow accumulation since snow began early morning
yesterday is now at 10.4
.A2 : inches as of 8::03am As of 8::03 am...snow is continuing to
fall at a light to
.A3 : moderate intensity. Streets are EXTREMELY bad! Side streets
here are very
.A4 : dangerous. Many motorists are having poor control on the side
streets. Of most
.A5 : concern to me is many CPS kids are going to school and it is
difficult for them.
.A6 : Observing a CPS school on the northwest side some kids are
slipping and falling
.A7 : in this snow! People have to be careful. I did not understand
why CPS did not
.A8 : close today. Overall, the biggest storm this year and very
difficult with
.A9 : driving and kids getting to school

28. A concession to practicality.
>099
>SRUS51 KRLX
>RR3RLX
>WxCoder
>.A CLWV E DH0700/XW 03/PPM 1.87/SD 0/SF 0.0/PP 0.00
>.A1 TA 50/TN 32/TX 54/DC
>.A2 : An early overnight minimum of 33 degrees at Clintwood 1 W gave way
>to dramatic
>.A3 : temperature rises as strong, downsloping winds displaced the
>nocturnal cold air
>.A4 : drainage temperature inversion amid the deep valleys. ROARing
>southerly winds
>.A5 : dominated the daylight hours, with enhanced speeds being observed
>at ground
>.A6 : level in some locations as partial clearing and sunshine leeward
>of the High
>.A7 : Knob massif contributed to turbulent mixing and the downward
>transfer of high
>.A8 : momentum air ( with possible mountain lee waves also acting to aid
>downward
>.A9 : transfer amid their axial troughs north of the High Knob
>highcountry ).
>.A10 : Structural wind damage occurred on the campus of the University
>of Virginia's
>.A11 : College in Wise, when the metal roof of Cantrell Hall was ripped
>apart.
>.A12 : Although peak gusts remained generally under 40 mph on the LNP
>20-minute obs, a
>.A13 : 51 mph gust was clocked at L.F. Addington Middle School in Wise
>to suggest
>.A14 : speeds were locally much stronger. The strong southerly winds
>aided warming
>.A15 : across much of Dickenson County, north of the Tennessee Valley
>Divide, where the
>.A16 : afternoon max soared to 66 degrees at Clintwood 1 W. Gusty
>showers overspread
>.A17 : the area from southwest to northeast during the late afternoon,
>with light to
>.A18 : moderate rains into the evening.
Remarks:
Only first 280 characters transmitted in the SHEF message, but whole message is retained in the archives.
A concession to practicality.

29. Typical. SHEF messages ####018000152#### SRUS53 KABR 022025 RR3ABR
WxCoder
.A SMTS C DH1700/TX 33/TN 22/TA 30/PP 0.00/SF 0.0
.A1 SD 2/DC
.A2 : strong winds, some drifting
#### ####
.A SMTS C DH1700/TX 41/TN 10/TA 35/PP 0.00/SF 0.0
.A1 SD 1/DC
.A2 : windy
#### ####
SRUS51 KRNK
RR3RNK
.A CHMV E DH0700/TX 56/TN 18/TA 42/PP 0.00/SF 0.0
.A1 SD 0/XW 01/DC
#### ####
SRUS55 KBOU
RR3BOU
.A ELIC M DH0600/TX 22/TN 12/TA 18/PP 0.11/PT 5
.A1 SF 1.5/SD 3/XR 49/XRIRZX 87/XRIRZN 49/UD 285
.A2 US 11/UG M/UP 43/UR 0/PA 29.88/DC
.A3 : Max wind 43 mph at 0730
#### ####
SRUS53 KEAX
RR3EAX
.AR AMTM C DH0700/TX 64/TN 35/TA 55/PP 0.00/SF 0.0
.AR1 SD 0/DC
Typical. SHEF messages

30. Site Administrator can track
detailed station metadata.
Protected site

32. More complex station
This one also has
soil and river information

33. Click to get online
User’s Guide

35. 1000’s Number of logins by hour Number of obs transmitted
We Feb Th Feb Fr Feb Sa Mar Su Mar 02
Last day of month Weekend

36. Weather Coder III after its One Month “Luniversary”
Mass switchover on 2008 February 1, all WFOs at once.
Major source of RCC – NWS interaction nationwide
No major problems, many small-to-moderate issues
Feedback options are heavily used
Many helpful comments and suggestions thus far from the NWS field structure
Needs some babysitting, quasi-operational for RCC, runs 24 / 7 / 366
As with all automated systems, human beings still have a significant role
Failover to HPRCC not fully functional yet
About 3000 – 3500 observations per day now being transmitted

37. Weather Coder III Thanks a lot !!!
A successful start
A number of improvements in the works … Observer and NWS feedback
Coop network getting more attention from NWS offices
Can correct or modify observations from the recent past.
Can fill data gaps for when permanent observer absent on travel, medical, etc.
Extensible to other types of manual measurements as well
Instant Quality Control has helped to change observer habits
Established observers do not need to use, but are encouraged.
New observers will be required to have the capability (web access).
Thanks a lot !!!