The weather conditions at each individual weather station can be represented on a surface chart by means of station plot.
This means that information which would take up a lot of space if written on to a chart can be displayed in a quick easy to understand format.
The land station plot can represent all the elements reported from that station, these typically include:
- Air temperature
- Dewpoint temperature
- Wind speed
- Wind direction
- Visibility
- Atmospheric pressure and three-hour tendency
- Cloud amounts
- Cloud types
- Cloud heights
- Present weather
- Past weather
Traditionally station plots for manned observing sites were based around a central station circle. However increasingly, automatic weather observations are replacing these and being plotted on weather charts. To differentiate between the two, automatic observations are plotted around a station triangle. Each element of the observation, with the exception of wind, is plotted in a fixed position around the station circle or triangle so that individual elements can be easily identified. Below is a diagram showing where each of the elements is displayed.
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