Getting Weather Reports and Metar Data

You can obtain governmental weather data data for use with your station. This data may be used either as the sole input source, or to complement data obtained by your own weather station. The data is obtained from the NOAA service, based in USA.

To configure Weather Display to collect data from other sources, click on Setup, Setup FTP/Internet/..., FTP/METAR download. Forecasts and warnings are downloaded using anonymous FTP, whereas the METARS are download by a faster HTTP download method.

There are 3 sections to this setup page:

• Times to Download
• Weather Reports /Warnings
• METAR Downloads

Download times

These times apply to both warning/forecast downloads and Metar downloads.

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 Display's setup for state 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 to be downloaded.

Agencies in other countries also provide similar services, e.g. BOM in Australia.

METARS

METAR downloads are the easiest to setup. Just select a nearby airport/station 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. You must include the file extension '.txt' at the end of the 4 letter station ID code, e.g. EGNH.txt

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, select that metar, so that it appears in the bottom edit box, and then tick "Use this metar for local sky conditions (and wunderground)".

Note: You don’t need a web/FTP server or homepage to download METAR 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 the location where the files are downloaded to (double click), and then to view each file click on View, Downloaded METARs. If you have ticked "Use this METAR for local sky conditions", 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 to make sure that the METAR on your web site is always up to date, download it just before your web page is updated. The Weather Display FTP program can carry out multiple agenda items at the same time. Make sure you turn the switches ON (so they are green) for either the METAR or forecast/warning download.

Finally, 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.