The METADATA branch of the directory structure contains the
consolidated station metadata file (stnmeta.dat) and the
consolidated narrative metadata file (narrmeta.dat), and text
files describing the file record format for each (stn_meta.txt
and narrmeta.txt).

The two consolidated metadata files contain all of the respective
metadata that were submitted for the entire world.  

These metadata are also available in separate country files,
which are located in seven subdirectories according to the their
respective WMO Region:

     METADATA\REG__I
     METADATA\REG_II
     METADATA\REGIII
     METADATA\REG_IV
     METADATA\REG__V
     METADATA\REG_VI
     METADATA\ANTARCTC

All submitted countries will have a station metadata file,
however only some of the countries will have a narrative metadata
file.  A few countries submitted more than one narrative (for
example, one in English and another one containing the same
information in the country's native language).  The file naming
convention is as follows, where CC represents the country code:

     CC_stn.dat     the station metadata for that country
     CC_nar1.dat    the narrative metadata submitted by that
                    country
     CC_nar2.dat    additional narrative metadata submitted by
                    that country