# Where a number sits on this plot is its name

> A weather station plot carries no printed labels. Temperature, pressure and wind all sit in a fixed position around one circle, and the position is the only label there is.

August 19, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/weather-station-observation

One circle. 08 at the upper left, 1013 at the upper right, 06 at the lower left. A shaft striking
out from the circle with two full barbs on it and one half. 0600Z underneath.

Nothing on the page says "temperature" or "pressure". The position does that job instead.

## What is a station plot actually showing?

A single weather observation, taken at one place at one moment, with every reading given its own
fixed spot around a circle instead of a word.

The circle itself stands for the sky above the station. Temperature always goes upper left,
pressure always goes upper right, and the wind is drawn as a shaft pointing from the direction the
wind is blowing from, with barbs along it counting how hard. Read clockwise from the top and the
whole observation comes off the page in seconds, the same way every time.

## Why does position replace the labels entirely?

Because a fixed layout can be read by anyone trained on the convention, in any language, at a
glance.

A forecaster working across a whole chart is reading dozens of these plots at once, and a plot with
words on it would take longer to read and take up more room doing it. Put temperature in the same
corner every single time and a trained eye stops reading it as a number in a position — it just
reads the value, the way a fluent reader sees a whole word instead of sounding out its letters.

## What do the barbs on the wind shaft actually count?

How hard the wind is blowing, notch by notch.

The shaft itself points in the direction the wind is coming from, and the barbs along it — two full
ones and a half, on this plot — are the count. More barbs means more wind; a half barb is a smaller
step than a full one. It's a scale built entirely out of marks on a line, with no number printed
anywhere near it.

## Does 0600Z mean something specific?

Yes — it's the time of the observation, given in a form that doesn't shift with time zones.

The Z means the time reads the same way everywhere the plot travels, rather than being tied to
whichever clock happens to be on the wall where it's read — similar to how [a six-figure grid
reference means the same square to anyone who reads the digits in the same
order](/stories/grid-reference-six-figure). A plot taken at 0600Z means the same moment
whether it's read on the coast it was taken on or a chart drawn up somewhere else entirely.

## Can a real station's actual reading go on a shirt?

The convention and the method are free to use. A specific meteorological service's own live data
feed or house branding is theirs.

Plotting temperature upper left and pressure upper right isn't borrowed from anybody — it's a
shared notation, the same as a musical stave. A real forecasting service's specific dataset or
their branded chart is a different thing, licensable in the usual way if a real one is the point.
Otherwise, an invented reading like this one is a complete, honest observation of nowhere in
particular.

## Does the plot work for an observation that never happened?

Completely — the notation doesn't check whether the weather it's describing is real.

Any four numbers and a barb count, placed correctly around the circle, produce a plot that reads as
legitimate to anyone who knows the convention, which is most of what makes this design work on a
shirt: it's a real language applied to whatever reading the wearer wants recorded — a different kind
of invention from [the twelve named boxes a shipping forecast draws over open
water](/stories/shipping-forecast-areas), which describe a real place using fictional
edges.

## Isn't a plot with no words unreadable to almost everyone who sees it?

To someone who hasn't learned it, yes — and that's not a flaw in the design.

[A blaze mark painted on a tree](/stories/trail-blaze-marks) works the same way: five
shapes that mean nothing until you've learned five shapes, and everything once you have. A station
plot on a shirt isn't trying to explain the weather to a stranger. It's a specific, correct reading,
worn by someone who already knows how to read it.

## Does it print well?

Yes — a circle, a shaft and a handful of numerals are a clean, simple print.

Keep the circle and shaft as flat, hard-edged lines rather than anything textured, and set the four
numbers at a size that survives the weave — station plots are drawn small on a real chart, and this
one shouldn't be. Grey with navy and one red accent for the circle itself is enough; the plot never
needed more than two colours to begin with.

## How do I get one made?

Describe the reading at [JustOG](/) — the four numbers, the barb count, and the time. Pick a
direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and
shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop).

Two full barbs and a half, and the wind was blowing exactly that hard at 0600Z and not a moment
before or after.