RED URLs are to type into your phone, BLUE URLs are to click on.
"Sometimes difficult to get reliable weather information..."
If you fly across the channel it is sometimes difficult
to get reliable weather information about the conditions to expect when
you return to the UK. There is a Premium Rate weather line run by the Met Office,
but if your mobile phone is pay-as-you-go, like mine, you will not be able to dial its
number! So what to do?
"Your mobile phone can display free TAFs
and METARs..."
Your mobile phone, if it is WAP enabled, can display up-to-date free TAFs
and METARs if it connects to the right internet URL. Half the problem is knowing
the URL to use.
You could try saving this URL, http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/forecasts/shorttaf/stations/EGKA.TXT into your phone's internet browser, which if activated now would return ...
Note the EGKA part of the URL. This is the ICAO designator used to specify airports. There is more about this later.
Or you could try this URL instead http://tinyurl.com/nq4a .. which would return at this very moment
Have you spotted the text in the second window is exactly the same as that produced by the first URL? The second one just saves typing!
"Changing long URLs into
short ones..."
http://tinyurl.com do
a kind of translation service - changing long URLs into short ones. The only
downside is it takes fractionally longer for the results to get back to you.
"Is it legal ...?"
Is collecting weather information in this
way legal? Yes it is! The TAFs and METARs come from either NOAA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or Aviation Digital Services - a US
government agency. The Americans have a Freedom of Information Act and put
all this stuff on the web in the public domain. Unlike the UK's Met Offfice
who restrict use of their data and charge for some of it.
So, continuing ... if you need a short TAF for any airport (listed here with a T in the TAF column), all you need to do is change EGKA (the ICAO designator) in the URL ...
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/forecasts/shorttaf/stations/EGKA.TXT ...
to the ICAO designator for the airport you are interested in. Then go to tinyurl.com and make a shorter version to put in your favourites menu on you mobile phone. Easy!
"More slick... http://www.activitae.com/wx.wml"
Or you may want a service which
is more slick, means less work and allows you to select the airport
or list of airports for which you want TAFs or METARs. The URL to save as
a favourite in your phone is
http://www.activitae.com/wx.wml . It is
a free service and only costs as much as your phone call.
The above service uses the Aviation Digital Services site to search for the data you require.
"Just one or two airports..."
If you know you only
want information for one or two airports then it might be quicker to have two
specific URLs saved in your phone. Type in the following into your browser
(or click the link below)- change the ICAO designator (EGKA) to point to which
ever airport you wish - output is returned suitable for both mobile phone and
computer screen. The following URLs can be both clicked and stored as a favourite
in your phone!
The output (for Shoreham) is below. Depending on what is available you might get back a TAF, a short TAF and a METAR.
Finally, a disclaimer; you agree, by using the information on this site, that the author cannot be held liable for any claims arising from its use in any way whatsoever.