Getting Weather Reports and Metar Data

Purpose: To obtain governmental weather data data for use with your station. This data may be used eithr as the sole input source, or to complement data obtained by your own weather station.

Click on "Setup" in the menu bar. Click on "Setup FTP / Internet / ...". Click on the "FTP/metar download".

There are 3 sections to this setup page:

   * Times to Download
   * Weather Reports /Warnings
   * Metar Downloads

Download times

These times apply to both a warning or forecast download and the Metar download. They all are provided by NOAA, based in the USA. Weather Reports and Warnings

First use your web browser to visit the NOAA site and determine the specific file for the area of interest to you. You can select files for different locations to use in weather displays setup for state forecasts or zone forecasts, etc.

Fill in the blank fields on this page with the host name, Directory, and file name to be downloaded.

If you wish, you may click on the "#2 setup" button to specify a second set of warnings or forecasts.

Other countries, like BOM in Australia, also provide a similar service.

The forecast / warning download is by anonymous FTP download, whereas the Metar download is by a faster HTTP download. METARS

The Metar download is the easiest to setup. Just select a nearby airport/station nearest to you from the list, so that it is added to the list on the right hand side, or enter it into the space provided and click on the > button. Remember to include the .txt at the end of the 4 letter station ID code.

Then if you want to use one of these metars to update Wundeground, or to update your weather icon, or to appear as extra text on the summary image, then select that metar, so that it appears in the bottom edit box, and then tick to use this metar for local sky conditions (and wunderground).

Note: You don’t need a web server/ftp server or homepage to download Metars or forecasts warnings .

If you want to have the metar or forecast/warning visible on your web page, then you need to tick include these text files on my web page.

You can select a location for where the files are downloaded to (double click), and then click on view, downloaded metars , to view each file. If you have ticked use this metar for local sky conditions, then when you click on the weather icon on the weather display screen, the metar will appear in a summarized form (and this image will appear on your web site).

Note: If you want the metar to be the most up to date on your web site, then download it before your web page is updated (weather display ftp program can do multiple agenda items at the same time). Make sure you turn the switch’s on (so they are green) for either the metar or forecast/warning download. Finaly

Use the Test button to see if the Metar you have choosen is actually available.

Note, as with all setup pages in the ftp setup, nothing is saved to be used by weather display until you click OK or test.