WaPo article: The devastating potential of an extreme solar storm and what the White House is doing about it

US releases inter-departmental plan to prepare for space weather.

Link: http://wpo.st/iSnj0

MRI TR 76 - WMO Task Team on Fukushima Daiichi NPP analyses (early online release)

Saito et al. 2005: Contribution of JMA to the WMO Technical Task Team on Meteoroloigical Analyses for Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident and Relevant Atmospheric Transport Modelling at MRI.  Tech Reports Meteor Res Inst. No. 76.
http://dx.doi.org/10.11483/mritechrepo.76

Weather symbols (pictograms like ☀) in Unicode

There are several symbols defined in Unicode for weather pictograms:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscellaneous_Symbols

　☀　U+2600 BLACK SUN WITH RAYS   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2600/browsertest.htm
　☁　U+2601 CLOUD   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2601/browsertest.htm
　☂　U+2602 UMBRELLA   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2602/browsertest.htm
　☃　U+2603 SNOWMAN　　http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2603/browsertest.htm
　⚡　U+26A1 HIGH VOLTAGE SIGN   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26A1/browsertest.htm
　⛄　U+26C4 SNOWMAN WITHOUT SNOW　http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26c4/browsertest.htm
　⛅　U+26C5 SUN BEHIND CLOUD   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26C5/browsertest.htm
　⛆　U+26C6 RAIN   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26C6/browsertest.htm
　⛇　U+26C7 BLACK SNOWMAN   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26C7/browsertest.htm
　⛈　U+26C8 THUNDER CLOUD AND RAIN   http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26C8/browsertest.htm
　🌩　U+1F329 CLOUD WITH LIGHTNING    http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f329/browsertest.htm

Some of them have origins in PC fonts in English-speaking countries.  Another source is ARIB STD B24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_Markup_Language which is Japan's standard for TV subtitles.

If you cannot see above "characters", that's probably the problem in the text font in your web browser.  Images are available at:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARIB%E5%A4%96%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AE%E8%BF%BD%E5%8A%A0%E8%A8%98%E5%8F%B7%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7#.E5.A4.A9.E6.B0.97.E8.A8.98.E5.8F.B7

[WMO] Meeting report of IPET-DRMM-III (WMO Codes team)

WMO Secretariat notified me that the meeting report of the IPET-DRMM third meeting in Beijing is now available from the meeting page at:

   https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/ISS/Meetings/IPET-DRMM_Beijing2015/IPET-DRMM_DocPlan.html

 

[JMA] HRIT/LRIT service to be terminated December 4th - use HimawariCast instead!

http://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/notice/termination_201510.html

[WMO] IPET-MDRD-3 subgroup meeting to be announced shortly

info to appear here:
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WIS/wiswiki/tiki-index.php?page=IPET-MDRD-3

NWS to terminate FOS service! Is it the end of non-internet wire service?

US NWS has announced it will terminate FOS (Family of Services) on October 2 2015.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/dm-cgi-bin/chgshow.pl?fn=DM09-15.02.txt

It is quite surprising for me.  The deadline is so soon, but I guess NOAA has coordinated with their subscribers already, as the announcement mentions about funding from FOS customers.

FOS is going to be taken over by the Integrated Dissemination Project (IDP).   I don't know much detail about IDP's services for operational users in the private sector.  But it looks like there is going to be no land-line service other than Internet-based ones, looking at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwws/dissemination.html

I really don't know more than that: any information is appreciated.