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HKO launches Electronic Weather Observation Log Book

2 January 2015

The Airport Meteorological Office of the Hong Kong Observatory officially switched to use the "Electronic Weather Observation Log Book (for METAR/SPECI)" on 1 January 2015, which marks the end of a century-long history of handwritten log book (nickname "sky book" among Observatory staff). The earliest handwritten weather log book still kept at the Observatory is that of Gap Rock back in 1919. The earliest one for the airport can be traced back to 1946 the postwar Kai Tai era, and is one of the oldest series kept by the Observatory.

Weather observer at the airport needs to issue an observation report every half an hour. Special observation reports in between the regular half hour intervals are also required during changeable weather condition. The electronic version of the log book automatically retrieves weather data from the database of the airport meteorological observation system and hence the observer only needs to fill in the remaining parts by their manual observation to produce an official record. It speeds up the recording process significantly and helps the observer to complete observation and reporting efficiently even during rapidly changing weather. In its electronic form, the log book can also be processed by other software facilities to ensure the quality of the weather records. This improves reliability and efficiency over the old manual checking process. At the same time, archival of the electronic files saves a lot of storage space. In short, the new electronic log book increases the efficiency in managing the observation records for the airport and promotes green office by reducing the use of paper.

Figure 1

Figure 1: Handwritten log books of early days. The 1946 book for Kai Tak is on the left hand side. On the right is the 1919 book of Gap Rock, which is the oldest handwritten weather log book still kept at the Observatory.

Figure 2

Figure 2: The first official electronic observation record at the Hong Kong International Airport on 1 January 2015 (00:30 - 03:00 HKT) .