Daily Weather Charts

As a National Weather Service storm spotter, I like to keep a close eye on the weather, and especially when severe weather is in the forecast. On those days, I bring up this web page, and then save it to my hard drive. I then open that saved page, and copy and paste into a text document (easier for me to supplement and edit). The intent is to give me an amateur's "map room" as described by meteorologist Jeff Haby: "An ideal map room would have all the forecast model, analysis charts, relevant skew-T diagrams, moving satellite and radar images on separate screens, and NWS text data printed out and up to date."

There is no copyright on this page. Please feel free to copy and adapt to your needs.

National Forecast Map
Storm Prediction Center, NWS
Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, NOAA

Other good “big picture” maps include:

• Weather Underground

• The Daily Weather Map, Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, NWS

• Unisys

• University at Albany, State University of New York

Surface and Upper Air Maps
Mandatory Level Plots, Unisys

250 mb Upper Air Map

500 mb Upper Air Map

An additional 500 mb Map is available from:
Department of Commerce "Daily Weather Map"

925 mb Upper Air Map

Additional Maps Available From:

National Weather Service, Surface and Upper Air Maps

Radar Images

Hytop (Alabama), National Weather Service

Columbus Air Force Base (Mississippi), National Weather Service

Southern Mississippi Valley Sector, National Weather Service

WunderMap, Weather Underground
NEXRAD for HSV / Regional NEXRAD for SE US
Satellite / Severe
Tornado / Hurricane

Source: WunderMap, Weather Underground

Regional Weather Map

Most of Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi

From Weather Underground

Skew-T Sounding Chart
Station KEET (Birmingham, Shelby County, AL)

Source: Unisys.com

Skew-T Questions

    In addition to the comments in the NWS Skew-T itself, there are several other values to monitor:

Y / N - CAPE greater than 1500 J/kg? In the forecast? - Y / N

Y / N - CINH less than 50? In the forecast? - Y / N

Y / N - LI (Lifted Index) less than -5? In the forecast? - Y / N

Y / N - Upper level winds (between 500 and 300 mb level) of greater than 100 knots?

Y / N - Low level winds (850 to 700 mb) at 25 knots or greater?

Y / N - Atmospheric winds increasing at higher levels (upper level speed shear greater than 70 knots)?

Y / N - Atmospheric winds from different directions (directional shear of 60 degrees or more from the surface to 700 mb)?

Y / N - Super-adiabatic lapse rate – where the temperature decreases with height – at a rate of greater than 10 degrees Celsius per kilometer? (data is displayed on the NWS Skew-T chart in the lower left corner)

Y / N - Dew Point greater than 55 degrees?

Y / N - Temperature greater than 80 degrees? In the forecast? - Y / N

Note: High temperature and high dew point indicates high instability, increasing the threat of severe weather.

Y / N - Is there a 30 to 50 degree surface temperature/dew point spreads? (may indicate high microburst potential)

[Insert local conditions here]

Note: I've pulled these eleven questions from numerous sources, believed to be reliable.
If this is not the case, please contact me at w4dda at arrl dot net. Thanks!

Additional Charts from National Weather Service: Skew-T Sounding Charts

I find that some information on the NWS chart is easier to read, and there is additional information that is found on those charts that is not found on the UNISYS chart. On days where severe weather is in the forecast, I download, save and incorporate the most recent NWS soundings.

Discussions of the contents of a SKEW-T diagram:
UNISYS, Upper Air Sounding Details
NWS, Explanation of SPC Severe Weather Parameters
Jeff Haby, Getting To Know SKEW-T Parameters and Forecasting Severe Weather Using SKEW-T

Not issued during fair weather. Access during inclement weather; carefully check the date and time.

• NOAA Weather Radio (162.400 in Huntsville area and streamed over the Internet from Weather Underground)

• Local television weather:
      ▪ WAAY TV (31)
      ▪ WAFF TV (48)
      ▪ WHNT TV (19)

• Weather and emergency amateur radio:
      ▪ SKYWARN (Huntsville Repeater, 147.240 / PL 82.5)
      ▪ ARES (146.940 / PL 100.0)
      ▪ RACES (147.220 / PL 136.5)
      ▪ Alabama Emergency Management Agency ARES Net (3.965 MHz)
      ▪ kBrews Weather Spotting Frequency Lists - Alabama
      ▪ Other Alabama Emergency Nets (courtesy of Birmingham Amateur Radio Club)

• Alabama State Information from NWS

• Storm Prediction Center for products such as:
      ▪ Current Watches (Convective and Thunderstorm)
      ▪ Enhanced Resolution Thunderstorm Outlooks (Experimental)
      ▪ Forecast Products
      ▪ Storm Reports
      ▪ National Radar
      ▪ Forecast Tools - Graphical (Experimental)

• Tropical Weather, Weather Underground

• IWIN. IWIN is the web version of the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) service that allows users to obtain weather forecasts, warnings, and other information directly from the National Weather Service in almost real time.

• NSSTC Collaborative Weather Blog.

• Model Output Statistics (contour plots of weather forecast data) from Unisys Weather Services:
      ▪ NGM Model
      ▪ NAM/Eta Model
      ▪ GFS/Avn Model
      ▪ GFSx/MRF Model
      ▪ RUC Model
      ▪ ECMWF Model

These are not NWS Products. I created them for my personal use in Huntsville, Alabama. Please feel free to copy and adapt to your situation as needed.

Issues Being Worked:

1. One current project is an attempt to pass text from JavaScript to HTML. The reason is to capture certain NWS images that are saved only in a date-specific format or in a date-specific folder. Such images are otherwise impossible to capture and reproduce on a page such as this. In particular, I would like to capture the National Weather Service's Skew-T Sounding Chart images and Surface and Upper Air Maps. The current work: Day Month Year Scripts

2. Another project addresses this question: Is there a way that this text can be "included" in this page? The seven-day forecast for Huntsville, "text version," can be found at:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=ALZ006&zflg=1&TextType=1