I came across this handy little app the other day and it is almost too much fun just to play with downloading and generating data / images.  It is used to decode GRIB2 data that the National Weather Service puts out.

The National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) is a database put together by the National Weather Service (NWS) to provide forecasts of sensible weather elements (e.g., cloud cover, maximum temperature) on a seamless grid.  The NDFD is currently given out to the public as a GRIB2 file.  For more information about how and why the NDFD was created, please see the NDFD Home page

So now you can generate your own weather maps and also export the data out as shapefiles.

Program at startup:

Generated weather maps:

You can also export the data as shapefiles by clicking on the GIS tab:

Generated shapefile in qGis:

Now mainly I downloaded this because it is one of the methods Hurricane data is sent out, and you can command line script this application.  Then I can work out a way to bring this data almost directly into World Wind.  But, it is also just fun to play with