The ROMAN Web Server located at http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/roman will be Shut Down
At Noon MDT Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Background

The ROMAN web services were designed and maintained initially as a partnership between federal land agencies, the Western Region of the National Weather Service, and the MesoWest research team at the University of Utah. ROMAN was intended for use by fire weather professionals and others requiring access to current fire weather conditions around the nation. However, ongoing operations and maintenance of ROMAN services by the Western Region of the National Weather Service and the MesoWest researchers have continued in recent years without support from the land agencies. Unfortunately, the hardware and software used for ROMAN are now far past their design life requiring major upgrades for which there is no funding available at this time.

What will happen at Noon MDT, Wednesday, April 27, 2016?

All current ROMAN web pages will be directed to this page. This page will remain indefinitely to inform ROMAN users of options available to them.

There is no possibility to reinstate the current ROMAN web services after April 27 as the current hardware will be turned off at that time. Any continuation or upgrade to ROMAN web services that might be funded in the future will require new hardware.

Further Information

This web page will be updated as needed. Voice any concerns or questions about the shutdown of the ROMAN web server to Ed Delgado (edelgado@blm.gov).

Options Available to ROMAN Users

The National Weather Service and the University of Utah support other web servers that provide much, but not all, of the functionality of the ROMAN web server. For example:

  • NWS Western Region Weather and Hazards Viewer
  • NWS Experimental Enhanced Data Display
  • University of Utah MesoWest and SynopticLabs

    • While many products on MesoWest have "droman" in the URL (for example: http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/meso_base.cgi?stn=MTTC1), none of those products are affected by this shutdown.

    ROMAN-based Capabilities to be Provided without Interruption

  • Access to all available RAWS observations from permanent as well as temporary sites will continue from the operational NWS MADIS system as well as software and databases maintained by the University of Utah and Western Region of the National Weather Service.
  • Web links that provide access to all available observations in the vicinity of major wildfires: http://mesowest.utah.edu/fire.html

    • Partial List of ROMAN Capabilities that will be Terminated after April 27 and not available on NWS or MesoWest in the Form Provided by ROMAN

  • MODIS Active Fire Maps: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/roman/index_modis.html
  • Geographic Coordination Center maps, for example: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/roman/gacc/nocc_frame.html
  • RAWS station listing: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/rawsobs.html
  • Text output in “flat” format, for example: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/roman/raws_flat.cgi?stn=IMYA2
  • The following MesoWest page does not surface the WIMS ID http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/raws_ca_monitor.cgi compared to the corresponding ROMAN page: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/roman/raws_ca_monitor.cgi