"Darrell H" wrote in message
om...
I have read that the SYNOPs we get have been run continously via GTS
since 1982.
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center archives of monthly-derived synoptic
data go back to September 1982, which lends some credence to this
claim.

.... thinking about my original reply, I think you are right and I'm
wrong about the *operational* implementation of the code. I'm happy with
the 1969 trials, but I was observing / coding into SYRED (SYnop REDuced)
code, an abbreviated form of the older code, until at least 1979!
(Formerly called, in the UK at least, AERO).

The SYRED code was in the format Nddff VVwwW etc., which is the same
format as the older 'Washington' code. SYRED was not needed once FM12
was introduced, because if you didn't report all elements, you simply
missed them out. This would put the change much later that I indicated,
and 1982 sounds quite reasonable.

I remember thinking that the 'new' code was making life difficult for
plotters - in the old code, you could plot the present weather, then the
visibility immediately to the left of it, and didn't have to think too
hard about the space left for the former (VVww being next to each
other). In the 'new' code, either you had to plot in code-order (i.e.
visibility then weather), but leave enough gap for the latter - it was
several groups further on), or skip to the weather, plot that, then go
back to the group containing the VV for visibility. Just took a
micro-second longer, but when you were plotting a Northern Hemisphere
chart, it took time! Fortunately, all this became irrelevant as about
the same time (at least in the UK), drum plotters took over the task of
plotting charts - but outstations still plotted their own for local use.

I've been trying to find my notes on the changeover, but I suspect they
have gone the way of all things ;-)

The Met Office national archive holds (for the UK) all the observing
registers for that time, and you could try emailing them (
) and they might have a look at the Registers about
the time to see when the code form changed.

Martin.