1 User’s Guide, Ver. 3.2
A Web-Based Entry System for
National Weather Service
Cooperative Observers
User’s Guide
Version 3.2
August 2015
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User's Guide Version 3.2 August 2015, Exercises of Operating Systems
User's Guide, Ver. 3.2. Figure 3: My Observations Page. You can access your NWS Form B-91 (or B-92, if an agricultural evaporation station ...
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A Web-Based Entry System for
National Weather Service
Cooperative Observers
User’s Guide
Version 3. 2
August 2015
Table of Contents Table of Contents and Summary of Changes .................................................................................. 2 WxCoder User’s Guide Introduction ............................................................................................... 3 Signing In ......................................................................................................................................... 4 WC3 Home Page.............................................................................................................................. 5 WC3 Observations Page .................................................................................................................. 6 Entering Your Data .......................................................................................................................... 9 Observation Confirmation ............................................................................................................. 11 The Superform ............................................................................................................................... 15 Correcting a Temperature Error ..................................................................................................... 16 Signing Out .................................................................................................................................... 19 Appendix A: Common Superform Errors ................................................................................ 20 Appendix B: Smart Phone examples of Daily Form Input ...................................................... 24 Summary of Changes
- Written changes are highlighted.
- Figures 10, 11, and 12 adjusted for software version and tab option.
- Appendix A, Figures A through F adjusted for software version, tab options, and error highlighting.
To begin, provide your NWS contact with a “ Username ” you wish to use to login to WC3 and an e-mail address. Your username should have between 3 and 255 characters. You may have any combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, the “ at ” ( @ ) sign, and the period. Using your station name as the username makes a great starting point in the selection process. The e-mail address you provide allows your servicing WFO to send messages and includes a randomly generated, and usually hard to remember “ Access Code .” Your servicing NWS office can create an access code to something easy to remember. This access code, with your username, completes the login process. Hardware/Software Requirements: No special hardware requirements are necessary. WC3 makes use of an internet-ready computer, connected to either cable, DSL, or a dial-up phone line. WC3 needs a functioning web browser like, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc. WC3 uses cookies and JavaScript to enable some of its features. Cookies and JavaScript need enabling within your browser for WC3 to function. If not on, WC3 sends a special message asking you to enable these items. This message includes information about cookies and/or JavaScript, and has instructions on how to enable either or both for WC3 operation. The “ Help ” section can also assist in activating these features. Signing In: Go to http://wxcoder.org. When the WC3 page opens ( Figure 1 ), enter your username and access code. If you forget your access code or are accessing the system for the first time, click on “ Having trouble? ” in the sign-in box and provide either the username or e-mail address you gave your servicing NWS office. A new access code arrives via e-mail. Take care to protect your username and access code from non-WC3 users. Reset the access code if it becomes known to non-users. Both your username and access code are case-sensitive. For example, your username is smith. Entries such as SMITH or Smith will fail and prevent you from signing into your account.
Figure 1: WxCoder Log-in Page WC3 Home Page (managing your account): When WC3 opens, it displays the home page and provides any “ News ” on updates/changes from either the WC3 programmers or the servicing WFO. There are also a number of key navigation features ( Figure 2 ): 1.) Home Menu : Provides access to observation and information pages. Menu item “ My Observations ” provides access to the Superform. 2.) Time Stamp : Three dates and times are seen: current date/time; last sign-in; and last observation sent. These serve as a reminder of your frequency of use. 3.) Bread Crumb : This provides a quick snapshot of where you are within WC3. 4.) Additional Help : You can find available help throughout the active session pages, including a Site Map, Contact NWS, and “ Help ” (to the left of “Sign Out” at top of page, Figure 4 ). 5.) Interface Acknowledgments : Collaboration between NOAA and its RCC, along with reference to the Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), are shown at the bottom of all WC3 web- pages.
Figure 3: My Observations Page You can access your NWS Form B- 91 (or B-92, if an agricultural evaporation station site) observations either for the current month or any previous month using the “ Download Data ” menu item ( Figure 13 ). Then select either the default B-91 or use the drop-down menu and select the B-92. You can also download and print a blank form, Figure 13 ( blank B-91sample at Figure 14 ), using Windows, Linux, or Macintosh operating systems. Figure 15 illustrates the data entry sections, including remarks.
Figure 4 : Daily Observation Entry Page
c. Now click the “ Save ” button. You now need to “ Confirm ” each of the day(s) you had open (Daily and Monthly input). For the Superform, click “ Save Changes .” NOTE: Making B- 91 entries via the “ Daily form ,” takes longer to complete than the “ Monthly ” or “ Superform .” B-92 users can use either the “ Daily Form ,” or the “ Superform .”
- Snowfall : For the measurement period, enter the total of newly fallen snow in tenths of in inches, including the decimal point. For trace observations, enter a capital “ T .” If none, enter zero ( 0.0 ). Enter at least a trace “ T ” in the snowfall column when reporting hail. This indicates frozen precipitation occurred, particularly in hail-prone months. In “ Remarks ,” enter the hail size, if known, or indicate the “snowfall” was all from hail.
- Snow Depth : At observation time, enter the average depth (accumulation) of all snow and other frozen precipitation on the ground in the vicinity of the station in whole inches. Record “ Trace ” observations with a capital “ T ” (for an average depth greater than zero but less than one-half inch (0.5). If no snow depth, enter a zero ( 0 ). Precipitation, B- 9 1: Indicate each hourly period when you notice/suspect precipitation fell over the course of your 24-hour reporting period. The number in each block indicates the start of the hour (e.g., 6 AM represents the period 6:00 – 6:59). The “ Superform ” does not have this section to save space in the data-base. For B- 92 form users, you have two sets of start and end time columns. Monthly Form: select the appropriate “ Observed ” or “ Estimated ” radio button. Then click on the block for each hour corresponding to precipitation occurrence. Two calendar days are shown ( Figure 4 ) to allow you to enter precipitation occurring after your observation time yesterday, to this morning’s observation. “Paragraph 5 ” on page 8 , highlights the observation period for the current morning/evening report.
- Key Weather in Past 24-hours : Click the appropriate box(s) under the “ Weather ” column when Fog, Hail, Ice pellets, Damaging wind, Glaze, and Thunderstorm occur within your reporting period.
- Remarks : Enter any additional notes regarding a phenomena not part of the B-91 form. Common examples include sky condition (cloud coverage, cloud type, optical phenomena), astronomical (eclipses), seismological (earthquakes), phenology (killing frost, blooms, first arrival of birds, etc.), flooding, hail size, or other observations of the natural environment. 6.) Submit : When all observation entries are complete, click the “ Submit ” button. Your entries undergo an evaluation for quality. WC3 displays any errors or entry omissions where corrections/additions are necessary before WC3 accepts the observation. The most common error is temperature. Using a reporting period of 8am: Yesterday’s “ At observation ” temperature has a value lower than this morning’s low temperature. Replace your current morning’s entry with yesterday’s “ At observation ” temperature ( Figure 11 ) as the lowest temperature occurred at 8:01 yesterday, your first minute of the 24 - hour observation day.
Remember , you are reporting a 24-hour observation period, not a calendar day (exception: you report at midnight). NOTE: Many observers often enter their current morning minimum temperature in “ Remarks ” to indicate the actual observed value. For example, yesterday’s “ At Observation ” temp = 32 is lower than this morning’s temperature. In “ Remarks, ” enter the observed minimum temperature “ AM low 40 .” Then, enter yesterdays “ At Observation temperature in the minimum temperature block. This ensures everyone understands your lowest 24 - hour observation period temperature occurred in the first minute. If you report in the afternoon/evening, the example above applies to your maximum temperature when it occurred in the first minute of your 24 - hour reporting period (See example at Figure 11 , Correcting a Temperature Error: (page 16 ), and Appendix A, Figure A. ). Observation Confirmation: Once you “ Submit ” an observation from either the daily, or monthly observation entry page, a final display allows you to check the data before final confirmation. This confirmation step ensures against typographical errors and provides an opportunity to make any necessary corrections. Review all elements and make appropriate corrections using the “ Make corrections ” button) before submission ( Figure 5 ). Figures 6, 8, and 9 show Daily and Monthly examples of observations under review before confirmation. The monthly confirmation window may have multiple entries. Click the small “ Confirm ” box next to each entry before clicking “ Confirm All Checked .” The Superform avoids the above “ Confirm ” step as it performs the Quality Control/Assurance (QC/QA) in the background via “ Save Changes .” Figure 5 : Confirm Daily Input Example Once you confirm, WC3 returns to the “ My Observations ” page when using the daily input as shown in Figure 4. When using the “ Monthly Form ,” the confirmation statement displays on the “ Confirm page ” as shown in Figure 6. For the Superform, red triangles indicate your latest entries/changes. At “ Save Changes ,” the triangles disappear.
Figure 7 shows the “ Monthly Observation Page .” This page allows you to view your data from a monthly viewpoint while entering/editing daily values. Figure 7 : Monthly B- 9 1 Form with Sample Entries
Figure 8 : Monthly Confirmation Example Figure 9 : Confirmed Multiple Monthly Observations
Unique Features:
1. The form opens in a separate window/browser tab to display all data previously entered for the month, with the current day ready to accept data. A mouse-click opens the box for maximum temperature. Use the Tab key either to move right for further same-day entries, or use the arrow keys for multi-day entries of the same type, i.e., precipitation. The “Enter” key for 10-key users works similar to the Tab and arrow keys. Un-saved entries display a red triangle ( Figure 11 ) in the upper left corner of a box. 2. Multi-Day Accumulation column: This defaults to one (1), indicating a daily entry. 3. Hourly precipitation occurrence (Section “ 5 ” in Figure 15 ) was omitted to improve data storage capacity. 4. Observation period weather is a drop-down menu where you can enter key weather events within your OBSERVATION period. If you reported a thunderstorm, did you have hail? If yes, include this element as they will both display (see highlight section in Figure 10 ). Use Remarks to indicate hail size, if known. 5. Remarks entries use a pop-up menu. A single-click opens the remarks box of the spreadsheet. 6. If reportable information is missing, temperature, precipitation, etc., enter an “ M .” 7. If no snow fall or snow depth, make a daily zero “ 0 ”entry. Enter at least a trace “ T ” in the snowfall column when reporting hail to indicate frozen precipitation did occur, particularly in hail-prone months. Indicate “ Hail ” in the “ Observation Period Weather ” column, and comment in Remarks if the entry is exclusively from hail. 8. The “Closeout” button now dims to indicate closure. “Closeout” no longer disappears. Figure 11 : Error flag for Temperature and Remarks Window Correcting a Temperature Error: Refer to Figure 11 above. The high temperature at the start of the 24-hour reporting period was the “ At Observation ” temperature of 59 F on the 8 th. The high at reporting time on the 9 th^ was 57 F. This generates the “ Errors ” pop-up window. 2013 -‐ 05 -‐ 9
To fix:
- Enter 59 F in the “ Max Temperature ” block on the 9th.
- Enter in remarks the current 24 - hour high temperature you have read from the NIMBUS recorder. An entry can be “ PM hi 57 ” or “ Today’s high 57 ” or something similar. Click “ OK ” on the “ Errors ” window, and then “ Save changes .” Figure 1 2: WC3 Superform – Evaporation Station Figure 12 is an example of an agricultural station reporting evaporation, water temperature, and wind-flow in whole miles ( B-92 Example: The anemometer mile reading comes directly from the unit and the 24-hour movement is the difference of current-from-past-day reading). These types of stations often include soil temperature. Add remarks with a single mouse-click in the “ Remarks ” column.
Figure 15 : Entries: Temp.; Precipitation; Snowfall; Snow Depth; Hours; Weather; Rmks Signing Out: To sign out, click “Sign Out” in the upper right corner of “Confirmation” page (Figure 9 ). WC returns to the home page (Figure 1 6 ) with a message, in red, indicating your success. Figure 1 6 : Signed Out of WxCoder
Appendix A: Common Superform Errors
1. Error flags at “Save changes:” The “Errors” sub-windows now open and highlight
the error with a yellow background. Changes cannot be made until you close the sub-
window.
Figure A. Figure A: Indicates a minimum temperature error. This error-flag displays within a month or to look back at the previous month.