Please read this -- lots of important RUC news to get caught up on.

Today we discovered that the automated messages to be sent out from the RUC forum stopped working on 26 Feb due to a server change, so most of you haven't seen the messages posted since then. Please look at http://maps.fsl.noaa.gov/forum/eval to see the full messages, but here are the highlights in order of importance:

1) important analysis bug and fix -- It was discovered that the RUC has not been using rawinsonde significant level temp/dewpoint data in its analysis and has been forcing in smooth T/Td structures with values linearly interpolated between mandatory levels. This bug is being fixed tomorrow, Wed 7 April, probably for the 12z run. Please read the forum posting from 1 April for more explanation, gif file examples of before/after, and apologies. Sig level winds, ACARS soundings, etc. have been getting assimilated properly - no problem there. The statistical impact has not been so bad, seeing that the NCEP RUC often verifies better than the version run at FSL, but the sounding structures are much improved and much closer to the raobs with this fix (meaning that sometimes they have been very ugly before).

2) The web site now allows one to plot skewts interactively from the native levels of RUC2 or 40km MAPS (FSL version) or raobs. You can use this for lots of things, including to see if the above-mentioned sig-level bug gets fixed.

3) The web site now has daily compilations of NWS state forecast discussions (SFDs) mentioning the RUC. (see index on left). This has been helpful to us to see, for better and sometimes for worse, how NWSFOs are using the RUC. There is also a list of frequency of RUC citations in SFDs.

4) NCEP status messages about computer down times, lost runs, obs problems, etc. can now also be viewed thru the RUC/MAPS web site (index on left).

That's all for now. I apologize for the email distribution downtime, and especially that the word didn't get out last week about the sig-level analysis bug, but invite your comments now on any of these items.

Stan Benjamin