Weather information is collected and provided in several ways. An overview of the dimenstions is shown here.

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<caption>Types and sources of weather information</caption><thead></thead>

Source		Past	Actual	Future
Investigation	Deduction	Climate	-	-
Observation	Reports	Reports		Manual forecast
	Visual	Synoptic	Synoptic	-
	Measurements	Synoptic	+++	-
Simulations	Now-casting	(+)	++	(+)
	Meteorological models	+++	++	+++
	Climate models	-	-	++