Hand analyses, including surface analyses, are often important tools for a forecaster, allowing forecasters to better visualize an environment than a computer model can. Now you can learn how to understand and complete your own surface analyses with our new course on Weather Academy! Hand-drawn surface analysis, as well as mid and upper-level analyses, are covered in this course through lessons and a video example. This course is presented by meteorologist Joseph Patton, who received his Bachelor of Science in Meteorology in 2015 from the University of Oklahoma and his Master of Science in Meteorology in 2017 from Florida State University. Mr. Patton previously worked for the National Weather Service in Goodland, Kansas from 2018 to 2020. Take the course by optionally signing up/logging in, and then use the course content guide below to start learning! Don’t forget to check out the resources listed under the Materials tab located on this course page and the first lesson, Intro to Hand Analysis!
Link to upper-air maps: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/obswx/maps/
Link to observed soundings: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/
Link to mesoanalysis: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/
To get archived unanalyzed mesoanalysis maps, click on one of the regions in the link above. Then click on image archive and loops. On the following page, hover over loop options and you should be able to select hourly mesoanalysis from up to several months in the past. This will load a loop in GIF format; to get one particular image, right-click and open the image in a new tab to download and print it. To get current printable surface maps, select a region, hover over the observations map, and select "Printable Surface Maps [PDF]". This will bring up the most recent hourly surface observations from that region.