NOAA Weather products
 

Anyone out there who has clear understanding of weather products from the AWC website?
It's unbelievable how hard is to find a clear, up to date, simple explanation of the informations available on the website.
AC00-45e hasn't been updated in more than 10 years and the AWC website doesn't offer an exhaustive legend for all it's products.

Constant Pressure Chart:
I get the wind direction and speed, I get the Isobars with pressure in hpa
But what are those blue lines and blue numbers?
Also what does the scale on the left mean?

http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/data/gfs/12...250_wnd_ht.gif

Thanks all

I don't know where the chart explanation is (I'll go looking for it) but look at the chart label (Isotach). The blue lines are lines of equal wind speed; the blue numbers are the speed for that line. Above certain speeds the map is shaded (95 knots and higher, I think - it's hard to see).

When I was a student pilot, I wasn't smart enough to understand those charts. An ATP and four type ratings later I'm still not smart enough.

Thanks Rotorhead, that's a start.

That's my problem, I searched for hours on the internet for an explanation but I couldn't find one. And as much as I could guess, I had nothing to confirm or deny my guesses.
The thing is when I was a student my CFI didn't have a clear understanding of this stuff so he didn't explain it to me very well, now that I have to teach it myself, I wanna try to give a better "service" to my students.

Mitch, as you know there are multiple NOAA websites. Buried in one of them is a chart legend. Rotsa Ruck finding it. The Glaim and ASA manuals have some good basic explanations as well. You might contact the publications (outreach) section below - my guess is they'll be initially baffled, but they might be able to find something.

NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Contacts

Reviewing my earlier post - the scale on the left denotes the wind speed shading. If there were an area where winds exceeded 150 knots, for example, you'd see purple.