• temperature
• dewpoint
• pressure
• wind speed/direction
• present weather

Whereas other maps may plot or contour individual elements such as temperature, dew point, sea level pressure, and streamlines, surface plots are all directly measured observations. All others are derived from station observations taken across the country. Although all information is plottable, some information on the following plots are intentionally left off for the sake of readability.

• The 84 (yellow) represents the temperature.
  
• The 59 (yellow) represents the dew point.
  
• The 168 (blue) represents the pressure to the nearest tenth of a millibar. The reading is 1016.8mb. The last three numbers are plotted and one must add either a 10 or a 9 in front of the numbers depending on which will make the value closest to 1000mb. In other words, if the number were 998, the actual barometric pressure would either be 1099.8mb or 999.8mb. The latter is the observed pressure since its value is closest to 1000mb.
  
• The line/flag (white) with the one barb represents a southeasterly wind (from the southeast) at 10 kts (1 flag). Half of a flag is 5 kts, and a filled-in triangle would be 50 kts. The triangles are more often seen on upper air charts. All flags on the barb are simply added up for the total.
  
• The KDBQ (red) represents the station identifier which in this case is for Dubuque, IA.
• For more on station plots, refer to the station model notes page

Sea Level Pressure and Temperature	Theta-e and Streamlines	Moisture Divergence and Wind Gusts
Surface Plots	Weather Symbols and Dewpoints	3 Hour Pressure Falls

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