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California Regional Weather Server

Instructions for Animations of Composite West Coast Overview Weather Maps
with Infrared Satellite Images

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• Starting Instructions:
1. In the "SELECT" area, select the number of days to appear in the animation (the default is highlighted in gray).
2. Select the interval (in hours) between images (the default is highlighted).
3. Press the "Build Animation" button.

The interval between images partly determines the total number of images in the animation and hence both the downloading time and the extent to which the image changes from one image to the next. For example, an animation length of 2 days with an interval between images of 12 hours will generate an animation with 5 images in it, covering a 48-hour period ending with the latest available image and with 12 hours between images.

Missing images are automatically skipped and up to three are listed.

• To step through animations frame-by-frame, first press the "Stop" button ("*"), then press the "Next" button ("|>") repeatedly to advance frames one at a time. Similarly, press the "Back" button ("|<") to step backward one frame at a time.
• To restart the animation after stopping it, press the "Restart" button (">").
• The WWWeb server (virga.sfsu.edu) receives data to construct a sea-level composite West Coast overview weather maps every 3 hours, within 2 hours of the map analysis time (from the 00Z and 12Z North American model [NAM] runs) or within 1 hour (from the 03Z, 06Z, 09Z, 15Z, 18Z, and 21Z Rapid Update Cycle [RUC] model runs).

  To update an animation to add any newly created map(s) (which also drops the oldest one from the animation), simply press the "Build Animation" button again.

Trouble-shooting:

• If the animation does not seem to be working correctly, check your computer's date/time--the animation depends on its accuracy!

• In your browser's Preferences, make sure that JavaScript (or simpley "scripting" is enabled. (In Microsoft's Internet Explorer, try looking in the "Web Browser" section of Preferences, under "Web Content" or "Advanced".)
• If you resize the browser window you might need to press the Reload button or choose Reload from the View menu.

WWWeb Site Navigation:

Animations of Composite Weather Maps:

Eastern Pacific & Western North America: 300 mb level 500 mb level Sea level

North America:   300 mb level 500 mb level Sea level

West Coast Overview:   Sea level, with infrared images Sea level, with visible images

or go to the Composite Weather Maps menu or the Composite West Coast Overview Weather Maps menu.