WOW Y i ht! WOW – You were right!

WOW Y i ht!WOW – You were right! By Dom Lethem

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WOW

• What is WOW• What is WOW

• Aims for WOW

• What a great start

• Case Studies• Case Studies- Feb 2012 – snow event - July 2013 – Lightning event

• Recent Developments

• Future plans

• Questions

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What is WOW?

• WOW is the Weather Observations Website• WOW is the Weather Observations Website

• WOW is a worldwide system for collecting and sharing observationssharing observations.

• Operational since June 2011

• Allows weather enthusiasts to view, submit and share their own observations

• Supported by the Royal Meteorological Society and the Department for Educationp

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What is WOW?

• WOW site star rating is based on WMO, Met Office & COL site grading schemes

Weather Impact recording• Weather Impact recording

• Local forecast of nearest Met Office ‘5000 forecast site’

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What is WOW?

Underpinned by Google technology with an up• Underpinned by Google technology with an up rate of 99.7%

24/7 i d k t d d l• 24/7 service desk to respond and resolve queries

• Meta data is recorded for each site to inform Users of accuracy

• Data can be logged by WOW from a wide range of commercially available AWSs.

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Aims for WOW

• Make observations data widely available

• Help to encourage the sharing of weather• Help to encourage the sharing of weather observations in the UK

Used by forecasters to add value in difficult• Used by forecasters to add value in difficult situations

E t f th E th i t C it• Engagement of the Enthusiast Community

• Schools

• Weather Enthusiasts

• Leisure/General Public

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What a great startg

• As of the 8th September 2013:

• Over 144 million observations submittedOver 144 million observations submitted.

• 3,346 observation sites created (worldwide)

618 027 it i it• 618,027 site visits

• Visitors from 182 different countries

• Around 1000 UK (2000 Worldwide) Observer Sites regularly submitting automatic weather reports

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What a great startg

• Nearly 100 University and college sites set up• Nearly 100 University and college sites set up

• Similar number of schools set up – this is a big target area in the next few yearstarget area in the next few years

• A postgraduate student (at Aston Uni) is d t ki t d f d l i il ti fundertaking a study of model assimilation of

WOW data.

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UK Met Office stations

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WOW adds granular detail gwhilst retaining the pattern

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Wh t t t tWhat a great startTechnology

wow.metoffice.gov.uk

Good results so far withGood results so far with around 1000 automatic weather stations in the UK feeding data intoUK feeding data into WOW.

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00 Z Sat 11th Feb

Snow event of 12th Feb 2012

• At glance snow depth map • Snow decode

00 Z Sun 12th Feb

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Network density70 auto snow depth sensors in UK land

network

y

Significant local detail can bedetail can be added by WOW

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Recent WOW Developmentsp• NSWWS what are we warning of?

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Recent WOW Developmentsp• How are we verifying the impacts?

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Recent WOW Developmentsp

• Met Office forecasters and scientists are reviewing cases where WOW data isreviewing cases where WOW data is particularly useful

Ch t h t lti l t b• Changes to charts, multiple parameters can be viewed simultaneously

• The Met Office is currently in discussion with Bureau Of Meteorology planning a trial of an Australian version of WOWAustralian version of WOW.

• We have opened a WOW Forum.

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Future WOW Developmentsp

• Mobile phone reporting of weather impacts and photosphotos

• Project area on WOW

• We aim to make the site more useful for schools and teachers by use of the Education tab

• Site statistics improvements E.g. max, min p g ,mean, Monthly, annual

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Met Office National Archive Place of Electronic Deposit

• To provide access to the Nation’s memory of the p yweather held in electronic format.

• Compliments our status as a Place of Paper Deposit

• Currently in the design / consultation phase

• Using examples by other National Met Servicesg p y

• What do you think?

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ExamplesUse a selection tool to find data

locations within an area

Refine selection

Zoomable map

Sites are shown in table with begin/end date of dataset

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begin/end date of dataset

Simple user interface

Q ti dQuestions and answers-Feedback forms available – shape ‘your’ website

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Li D htt // t ffi kLive Demo :- http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk

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