Interpreting Surface Weather Stations reports (FM 12–XIV SYNOP)

[Richard Shea]

Does anyone have some code which interprets Surface Weather Stations
reports (formally termed 'FM 12–XIV SYNOP' reports) ? I've tried the
cheese shop but no joy.

I've seen PyMetar (http://schwarzvogel.de/software-pymetar.shtml) but
I don't believe it covers this format.

I can't believe I'm the first person who wished to parse these reports
so I'm hoping there's someone out there who's willing to share.

I've been referred to http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/Manual/Volume-I-selection/Sel2.pdf
as an explanation of their structure but I would prefer not to delve
into that if I could avoid it.