Operational Information Service

WMO Publication No. 9 - Weather Reporting
Volume C1 - Catalogue of Meteorological Bulletins

METNO MESSAGES

Semi annual updates:	File Naming	Record Format	File Transfer
Advanced Notifications:	File Naming	Record Format	File Transfer

What is a METNO message?

METNO messages are meteorological notifications automatically generated from advanced notifications received from the RTHs on the MTN.

If there is no advanced notification for a week, a METNO message with a text "NIL" will be sent so that GTS centres can verify that all METNOs have been received.

How to receive a METNO message

METNO Messages are sent at 1500 UTC, every Tuesday and are also available on the WMO FTP server.

METNO format

To differentiate METNO messages related to Volume C1 from those related to Volume A, the following abbreviated headings are used:

For a METNO message related to Volume A: NOXX01 LSSW YYGGgg
For a METNO message related to Volume C1: NOXX02 LSSW YYGGgg

Example of a METNO message:

000
NOXX02 LSSW 170400
1 AA 01/03/2001 6 OFFENBACH GERMANY OFFENBACH 01/03/2001 E PPTA89 EDZW T.4 00,12 24 N 86 W, 55 N 113 E, 06 N 35 E, 20 N 36 E, SCALE 1:30.000.000 (A4) POLAR STEREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION SURFACE WEATHER CHART WITH PLOTTED OBSERVATIONS

2 AA 01/03/2001 6 OFFENBACH GERMANY OFFENBACH 01/03/2001 A PPOG99 EDZW T.4 00,12 43 N 67 W, 61 N 79 E, 19 N 27 W, 27 N 33 E, SCALE 1:30.000.000 (A4) POLAR STEREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION H+00,H+12,H+24,H+36 (LFPW MODEL) SURFACE PRESSURE

NNN

Explanation of a METNO message:

METNO	Code	Explanation
000	ZCZC	Transmission sequence number: It is a three-digit group giving the transmission sequence of messages from one centre over a particular channel to the receiving centre on that channel. Numbers 000-999 inlcusive must be used in a cyclic manner
NO	T1T2	Data type and/or form designators. Warning (does not change for a METNO).
XX	A1A2	Geographical and/or data type and/or time designators (does not change for a METNO).
02	ii	To indicate that it is a METNO message related to Volume C1
LSSW	CCCC	LSSW - for Zurich centre
100400	YYGGgg	Day and hour in UTC for insertion into the GTS. YY= day of the month, GGgg= hour in UTC
METNO	METNO	Message identifier
C	C	Sequence of characters to indicate the end of a METNO message.
15	XX	Weekly serial number
08	YY	Year 2008
RRx eg RRA	BBB	Used to segment a large set of information into several bulletins; where "x" is an alphabetical character of A - X
NNNN	NNNN	Sequence of characters to indicate the end of a METNO message.