The Daily Weather Map has been published continuously
for well over a century. It began as the Washington Daily Weather
Map in the late 1800s at a time when weather maps were published at
most National Weather Service offices (then known as Weather Bureau offices).
See an example from 1899. Today
it is the sole survivor. At one time these maps were a primary information
source to the public. They were published and mailed locally and
received by customers the same day while the meteorological information
was fresh enough to be used to make decisions. By the mid 1900s, mail service
has changed and the Daily Weather Map
was generally received
by customers the next day. The meteorological information was stale
by then and its primary function became that of an archival storage.
Recognizing this, the NWS modified the publication and it became weekly
in the early 1960s and was reduced in size. While there was no longer
any attempt to deliver timely data, the new format was very convenient
for archiving. The weekly version was much smaller in format and
easy to bind into books or store in a loose-leaf binder. The maps could
easily be reviewed by interested individuals and a ready made set of basic
weather charts was widely available for illustrations in publications.
The widespread use of the Internet for the distribution
of weather information led to changes in the distribution of the Daily
Weather Map. Since the main cost in publishing the Daily Weather
Map is the cost of printing and distribution, beginning with the first
issue published in 2003, the Daily Weather Map has been available for viewing
or downloading from the Internet. The Daily Weather Map is also available
by subscription, either in electronic format on a quarterly CD or via a
weekly paper copy.
More information is available regarding
subscriptions.
The printed copy can be downloaded
in .pdf format.
The Daily Weather Map is online
at the HPC web site. The publication is updated daily during the late morning
with the charts from the previous day. The latest surface analyses for
today are available on the HPC surface
analysis page.