Weather symbol for ww=07 (blowing dust/sand or blowing spray) and JMA's surface analysis chart

Effective 06 April 2015, Japan Meteorological Agency uses symbol like $/ℓ for present weather code ww=07 (blowing dust or blowing sand for land stations, or blowing spary for ship) on its Asia-Pacific surface analysis charts stamped ASAS http://www.jma.go.jp/en/g3/.  Before that the symbol $ was used regardless the report is for land or for ship.

The ww symbols table have a story I wrote before:
http://toyoda-eizi.blogspot.jp/2014/11/changes-of-present-weather-symbols-for.html

On 1970 the Fifth session of the Commission for Synoptic Meteorology (FR ¶6.4.2.2) changed the symbol from $ to $/ℓ with a footnote:

When ww is coded 07, the symbol for blowing dust or blowing sand （$） is used if the observation originates from a land station, the symbol for blowing spay （ℓ）　is used if the observation originates from a sea station.

On 1980 the Extraordinary session of the Commission for Basic Systems replaced the table with current one (as attached) in its Recommendation 7.  The footnode above was removed at that time.

Final Report of CBS-Ext 2014 online (english/arabic/chinese)

The final report of the 2014 extraordinary session of the Commission for Basic Systems, held in Asuncion, Paraguay, is now available online:

En: http://library.wmo.int/opac/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=17160
Ar: http://library.wmo.int/opac/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=17161
Zh: http://library.wmo.int/opac/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=17162

Hungary's SYNOP BUFR contained operator 208035 before std sequence

On 16 April, ECMWF reported that SYNOP BUFR reported by Hungary contained operator 2-08-035 before the standard sequence 3-07-080.  The operator affects the length of the first string element in the sequence, namely the name of station.

Everybody in the expert team IPET-DRMM shared the view that it is not plausible style of work, but this is not explicitly prohibited by the B/C1 regulation.  I've made a question to ECMWF about what is acceptable for them, since it is also not nice to BUFR implementors worldwide to comment after their work.  I hope it will serve as good rule of thumb:

 - a B/C template without extension, i.e. the section 2 consists of single sequence only.
 - a B/C template followed by other descriptors
 - if the extension contains local number, that must come with local table version number more than zero

On 22 April, ECMWF reported that Hungary changed their way of reporting.

Entire story can be traced at the thread:
https://groups.google.com/a/wmo.int/d/msg/cbs-ipet-drmm/o7ITsHaER24/QQzIh0MwM9sJ

[TDCF-migration] Spain terminates TAC SYNOP/TEMP/CLIMAT on 29 June

There was an announcement in WMO/CBS/IPET-DRMM.
https://groups.google.com/a/wmo.int/d/msg/cbs-ipet-drmm/ZdB7vrqO-98/XeuPBNIqQbQJ

[WMO Codes] fast track amendment 2015-1 approved, to take effect on May 6th

WMO Operational Newsletter http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/ois/Operational_Information/Newsletters/current_news_en.html says:

___________________________________________________________________________________________

CODES

WMO No. 306 - Manual on Codes - Adoption of amendments by the fast-track procedure

In accordance with the fast-track procedure for the adoption of amendments to the Manual on Codes, the Secretariat sent a list of amendments to the focal points for codes and data presentation matters for comments on 6 February 2015. No objections were received from the focal points. Additional entries to the Common Code tables C-5, C-8 and C-11 were proposed and these will be considered as minor adjustments and "will be done by the Secretary-General in consultation with the president of CBS" in accordance with the fast-track procedure. The president of CBS has approved the amendments, including the additional ones, on behalf of Executive Council for implementation on 6 May 2015. The amendments are available in English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Published: 17 April 2015

___________________________________________________________________________________________

[METNO C] Russian radiosonde observation resumed to twice a day

On January 1st 2015, most of russian upper-air observation was reduced to once per day (cf. my previous blog post).

From April 1st 2015, however, we observe twice per day reporting from russian stations, as announced in METNO C on 31st March.  Following is an example, upper-air analysis chart, indicating full observation network in Russia.

500 hPa analysis chart on 00UTC 05 April 2015.

bookmark - RA IV Hurricane Committee, thirty-sixth session: final report

RA IV Hurricane Committee, thirty-sixth session: final report

World Meteorological Organization, (WMO) ; RA IV Hurricane Committee, 36th session (7-10 April 2014; Cancun, Mexico). Published by: [S.l.] : WMO, 2015; 29 p.

Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwdvoC9AeWjUbFRvNnlPWDlMRGs/view?usp=sharing

Language(s): English; Spanish