Notes on WX0 and WX1 Formats
NOAA Weather Data
Bob Larkin, W7PUA  25 Feb 2008

This note is summary of the data formats used for the multi-day NOAA weather data for 
radio propagation studies.  The major goal of these two formats is to be Excel 
compatible, as the original HTML or derived text is not directly compatible.

Source Data: This comes from NOAA as
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=&sid=KPDX&num=168&raw=0&dbn=m&banner=off
This is for Portland, OR, KPDX.  Other sites can be accessed by changing KPDX. The columns 
and data are explained in the column headings, for the most part.

WX0 Format:  This is a reduction of the original HTML file to text. The data content is 
almost unchanged. The columns are tab-separated, and the file should drop into an Excel 
page, as is.  It has much data that is not usually needed for propagation studies.  The 
file size is about 10% the size of the original HTML.

WX1 Format:  This is also a reduction of the original HTML to text.  Two new columns have 
been added, giving date and time in both UTC year-day and UTC date and time string.  The 
original local date and time column is retained.  The "Trace" rainfall has been 
converted from "T" to 0.005, and no-rainfall is listed as 0.0 nches.  The columns are:
  UTC Year-Day   1.00000 to 365.99999 or 366.99999
  UTC Date-Time String
  Local Date-Time String
  Temperature, F
  Humidity, Percent
  Altimeter, Inches of Hg
  Precipitation, Inches
  Clouds

Comments:
Both formats can be placed into Excel with File/Open/Finish steps.  The default values 
of "Delimited" and "Tab" are correct.

The UTC Year-Date can be used in scatter plots to provide a fully consistent time scale.

Dates and Times may be missing, or have extra lines, due to the particular situations at 
the airports. If one uses a scatter plot for displaying data, this is not usually a problem.

The barometric pressure is listed as "Altimeter."  This means that the local pressure is 
being shown, but it has been corrected to sea level.  This is the set value for an 
altimeter at that airport.  It is used here, since most barometers are operated this way.