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synoptic times In Universal time, the times of 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800. They are often labeled as, ie, 1200 Z, where the Z marks them as "zulu time." See zulu. These times are also called the standard or main synoptic times. Most weather maps and forecasts are updated at these times each day, although they are usually not available until an hour or two later. They are sometimes referred to in this course as "valid map times" since this is how they are actually labeled on the maps. See also "valid time" and "from time." synoptic times are often abbreviated HH, thus HH+1 or HH+1h means one hour after each of the synoptic times. We might say that weather maps are available by radiofax at about HH+3h as a general rule, but GRIB maps are typically HH+7h

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