This archive contains answers to questions sent to Unidata support through mid-2025. Note that the archive is no longer being updated. We provide the archive for reference; many of the answers presented here remain technically correct, even if somewhat outdated. For the most up-to-date information on the use of NSF Unidata software and data services, please consult the Software Documentation first.
Greetings! MetPy's StationPlot class can certainly be used to generate those kinds of plots, though I'm not sure how well they'd interact with OpenStreetMap: https://unidata.github.io/MetPy/latest/api/generated/metpy.plots.StationPlot.html The challenge, though, is that MetPy does not currently have support for parsing SYNOP reports, only METAR: https://github.com/Unidata/MetPy/issues/1376 We would certainly welcome community contributions to add support. Cheers, Ryan > I have a certain fascination with station-model synoptic charts, and for a > long time I’m juggling with an idea to, one day, create a dynamic > station-model map on an OpenStreetMap background similar to the surface map > from METARs available on AviationWeather.gov website, which I really like. > > Nowadays you can find some sort of these maps on a few websites – not that > many – e.g. Meteocentre.com surface analyses every hour, but oftentimes > they are kind of lacking. > > So I was wondering if MetPy – or any other tools of your knowledge – can > help in doing that, decoding a SYNOP and drawing it onto a dynamic map > foundation? > > It might be considered a useless job, since usually the national weather > services and private forecasting agencies have their own visualization > software, but I think the world needs something open-source and > open-access. Freely available. And regularly updated. > > For example, take a look at this map: > > www.hidmet.gov.rs/data/analiza/BALKAN/balkan12_JPG.jpg > > Something like that, rich in information, with not only T, Td, pressure, > wind, and cludiness, but also pressure tendency, present-weather symbol, > visibility, observed clouds, past weather, cloud base, and low-cloud amount. > > Any kind of help, information, encouragement, directions you can give me > and point me in the direction of how can I manage to do it and what to > learn would be of so much help! > > Thank you! > > Kind regards and all the best, Ticket Details =================== Ticket ID: WSL-472428 Department: Support Python Priority: Low Status: Closed =================== NOTE: All email exchanges with NSF Unidata User Support are recorded in the Unidata inquiry tracking system and then made publicly available through the web. If you do not want to have your interactions made available in this way, you must let us know in each email you send to us.