The following information was originally posted by Duane from Eau Claire, WI on the Weather Den website former WD Blog on January 11 2011, I feel this is good information for anyone who is interested in this free program.
Ok, so I'm not sure how many people will feel like making use of this, I figured I would make it available on the blog for people to go back to and use. The program Bufkit is a free program, and takes forecast model data and puts it all into one program that is easy to access once you have it set up. The set up part can be tricky, but hopefully this will help with that process.
Step 1: Download Bufkit. It can be found on this website http://wdtb.noaa.gov/tools/BUFKIT/index.html Scroll down, and select Option 1 and follow those instructions on installing.
Step 2: After you have Bufkit downloaded and installed, open the program. On the top right, select Set Up. In the white boxes underneith where it says Specify up to 18 different model types, enter the following...each one into a separate white box... GFS3, NAM, RUC. Click Save (Bufkit will close in order for the changes to take effect. Just reopen it after it closes)
Step 3: Now that the basic set up is done, you will have to set up to get data into the program. After you reopen Bufkit, on the top right select "Get Data". That will open up a separate window/program called BufGet. Under the big black box, there are letters A - V in gray, and A - V in red. Those are all presets that came with the program that we really don't need, but feel free to look through them by simply clicking on the letters and seeing where they are set up for (Letter C is set up for Charleston, WV's SREF's, but those have nothing to do with WI or MN. I chose Letter A to set up my profiles in, because that is the default one that opens when you open BufGet. Select letter A by clicking on the gray "A", then highlight all the text in the black box and delete it.
Step 4: Go back to your web browser (keep BufGet open), and go to http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/bufkit.phpThis site is where you will get the new web addresses that will go in the black box that you just cleared. I still haven't been able to get the WRF-ARW one to work on program, but really it doesn't matter to me. Under NAM Model Files, click on the site that you will want to get data from. I selected most of them, mostly for use in the summer during chase time. After you click on the site you want, copy the address that is in the address bar, and paste that into the black box in BufGet. Example...the address for the NAM data for Minneapolis/St. Paul is http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bufkit/mpx/nam_msp.buf After you paste that address into BufGet, repeat for the GFS and RUC. Press Enter after each address to put each one on a different line. **TO SAVE, CLICK ON THE RED LETTER THAT YOU ARE ENTERING THE DATA INTO. IF IT'S PROFILE LETTER A, THEN CLICK ON THE RED A. DON'T FORGET TO SAVE AFTER YOU ARE DONE, OR YOU WILL HAVE TO ENTER THE ADDRESSES OVER AGAIN**
Step 5: After you are done entering all the addresses, click on Get Profiles. You should see in the white box each site that is uploading data, and if it worked it will say HTTP OK. After it is done loading all the profiles, click on Bufkit at the top of the box, or if you already have Bufkit opened, just bring it back up onto your screen. You should see GFS3, NAM, and RUC in green letters at the top of the page. When you select one, the sites should show up to the right of it (MSP for Minneapolis/St. Paul, etc). Select the site, and select the model, and you're done. Now, the next time you go into the program, you can click on Get Data, and when BufGet opens you can just click on Get Profiles (if you saved them in Profile A. If you chose a different one, you will have to select that profile, then click Get Profiles)...and your data will update to the latest model run, as long as that run is complete.
I know this is a lot and it might be a little confusing, but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask me and I will do my best to help out. The program has some pretty decent tutorials too, and is handy for quick access to forecast soundings, and key data for severe weather forecasting. Good luck and happy forecasting!
