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METAR is the name
of the code message for an aviation routine weather
report. It may have a trend forecast appended.
METARs are issued at 20 and 50 minutes past each
hour. At some aerodromes there will be issued METARs
only once an hour, at 50 minutes past each hour. A
METAR contains actual weather observed during the
observation period, which is the last 10 minutes
prior to the observation time. The observation time
for METAR is given in UTC (Coordinated Universal
Time).
Now, let us decode the following METAR examples.
Example #1:
METAR 191050Z 36003KT CAVOK 15/05 Q1014
191050Z
The first group of example #1 is the date and time (DTG)
in UTC. The 2-digit (19) is the date of the current
month and the next 4-digit (1050Z) is the time in
UTC followed by the indicator Z.
36003KT
The second group of example #1 is the wind direction
and velocity where it is blowing from. The 3-digit
(360) is the wind direction measured using the
36-points of the compass and the succeeding 2-digit is
the wind velocity measured in Knots. Other European
countries use Meters Per Second.
CAVOK
CAVOK (Clouds And Visibility OK) may be used in lieu
of visibility and clouds if all of the following
criteria are met:
--No clouds below 5000 feet or minimum sector
altitude (MSA) if MSA is higher than 5000
feet.
--No
Cumulunimbus (CB) or
Towering Cumulus (TCU) clouds
--No significant weather, either at the aerodrome or
in the vicinity
--Visibility of 10 kilometers or more.
15/05
This group is the rounded figure of current
temperature and dew point in degree celcius
separated by a forward slash.
Q1014
This group is the QNH. QNH is an international code
for the air pressure at the aerodrome reduced to sea
level. In METAR this is prefixed with the letter Q
if the QNH is given in hectopascal (hPa), and A if
the QNH is given in inches of mercury. It is always
given in four digits, a QNH of 998 will then be
Q0998 in a METAR.
This is only the basic METAR report in sunny weather
condition. If the weather condition in a reporting
aerodrome becomes bad, the METAR report will be
lengthy that will describe the full situation.
»Example
#2 |
