Generate soundings from Rapid Refresh (RAP), FIM, GFS, NAM, and other Model Analyses and Forecasts, RAOBS, or Aircraft (restricted)

The URL for this page is https://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/
The old non-java soundings formerly at http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/gifs/ are no longer supported.
Users can use the interactive, non-java display available as the Interactive plot option on this page,
Or for text data, can use the Ascii text option on this page.
Bak20, Bak40 and FIM data are experimental.
This site is not supported 24/7, and may be subject to outages.

Bak13 soundings for every hour for the past two weeks are available at these airports.

Latest version: 3-Oct-2018. See change details for more information.

For up-to-date information about RAP runs, see the RUC/RAP forum.
(You can subscribe to this forum to get email copies of new posts.) Please also see the RAP FAQ.

For up-to-date status of RAP/RR model Runs, see RAP status (Bak40, Bak20, and Bak13).

Instructions | Latest Op40 analysis is valid at 11:00 UTC | Latest Bak40 analysis is valid at 11:00 UTC

Initial data source: Op40 (to 18h, NCEP 13km RAP on CONUS 40km grid, hourly) or
Bak40 (to 24h, GSD 13km RAP on CONUS 40km grid, hourly, formerly "MAPS") or
Bak13 (14-day archive of analysis and 3h forecast soundings from these airports) or
FIM (Turned off for now, due to too many accesses to 5 days, Global, 0.5° grid, 12-hourly) or
GFS (Global, 0.5° grid, 3 and 6 hourly) or
NAM (to 15h, 3-hourly) or
RAOBs or Aircraft (restricted) or

--- slower-to-load, high-server-load, or special purpose soundings below ---
RETRO (special restores) or CIMSS (special RAOBs)

Start Valid Time: Latest, or - : UTC
Number of hours:        Desired forecast projection
Name(s), "lat,lon",
or RAOB-WMO-ID(s):
Site(s):
Site info: METARs, Airports,
RAOB locations, latest RAOB times.
(Explanation of GSD format | parameters for text requests,)

OLD java plots, soon to be unsupported:

For information on interpreting these soundings, please see the following:
  		• Practical Use of Meteorological Models and Visulization Tools for Soaring Forecasters Presentation by Walt Rogers at the 2016 Soaring Society of American National Convention (Greenville NC).
  		• The NWS Publication The Front from Feb 2004. (The web site has been updated a bit from what is shown in the article, but this is an excellent reference for pilots nonetheless.)
  		• Tutorial on upper air plots from UNISYS

    We reserve the right to deny access to any individual or organization that we determine is abusing this service. Examples of abuse include automated transfers resulting in excessive data requests (because it hinders others from accessing the service) and attempting to gain access to documents and host machines not intended for public use.

    Please send questions about this page to one or more of the following people.
    • webmaster-amb.gsd for technical questions about the java display (such as a blank screen)
    • Brian Jamison for questions about soundings and the SkewT display in general, and about RAOB soundings
    • John M. Brown for questions about model soundings (types of models, available forecasts, latency, etc.)

    Model soundings provided by Stan Benjamin and Kevin Brundage,
    RAOB data provided by Mark Govett and Brian Jamison

    Last modified: 11-Feb-2017

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