Search for more about weather.
Search for more about weather.
In the US, NOAA weather observation stations and similar national forecasting services in other countries provide flight weather data. They deal with knowledge upon which human lives can depend.
Weather stations keep extensive records and empirical data past weather data, climate data real time weather data, and
air quality data.
Sometimes data makes it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Often, it is used to calibrate aircraft instruments.
Government observers and technicians are highly trained and well paid. Because this stuff is important.
Hang on, this can be quite technical. METAR is an acronym for hourly METeorological Aviation Report. It is a single line of encoded weather info provided by the weather stations.
If it's a special non-routine report, they call it SPECI. The services use it for sudden changes in observed weather.
forecast, the official phrase is Terminal Aerodrome Forcast or TAF for short.
METARs are weather observations encoded in a special language. The format has become the world standard for weather stations, as set by ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization.
For the most recent observations somewhere in the USA, find your nearest airport four letter code, for example KLAX for Los Angeles Airport.
If you need your airport weather station code, use this webpage. Type the city name and hit submit. Find the 4-letter code after the initials ICAO.
Big cities and two-word city names will give a list of several airports and stations and you'll need to find the right one. Then go to the government page at
this government page and type that code in.
Canadians locations have a good one. It gives the last three METAR weather observations and TAF weather forecasts. It also allows you to type in the city name if you don't know the airport code.
Everybody knows Canada is cold. Always. What do you think?
This country never has summer. Or does it?
Ever been to Canada? Or some other northern place? Russia? Sweden? Alaska?
Was it a shock?
Look here to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Not What I expected
The first time I went to Charlotte, NC in January it was 70 degrees! Now, they have snow and ice just like we do in New England! Barry's Response …
It was great, we went snowboarding in Hemavan and was a great adventure holiday with 2 other friends. I did not feel the cold much wearing the ski jacket …
nav canada weather
How do I read an upper wind report from Nav Canada weather web site? Barry's Response - Greg: That's a good one. As far as I understand these are …
Not always Cold in Canada
I live in northern Indiana and went fishing up to Vancouver Island in June and found the weather to be very pleasant. Later I visited in January and while …
I regularly check the weather. I have never heard of these terms before. But I do check the weather regularly. The site i use is the weather network. …
Changing Canadian Situation
There are not many government observing stations left in our changing Canadian situation. I am a flight service specialist with NAV CANADA. NAV CANADA …
Cool but not cold
I have experienced cold, but not the true, bone-deep, cold of a Canadian winter. I lived on a boat in London for a year, and although people always say …
cold Not rated yet
No idea...have been at 60 below and was cold, so let me know if colder. Barry's Response - Well Mr. Clyde. It seems you have me beat. I live in …
Canadian Weather Not rated yet
Canada is a country of weather extremes. I live in Canada; I currently live in Ontario, but I have also lived in British Columbia. The winters are …
canada Not rated yet
I have been to Canada many times. It is really cold in winter. Colds are very common there. That's why you have to dress really warm. In the summer it …
Weather stations Not rated yet
A weather station is used to find temperature recorders, humidity data loggers, wind speed instruments and devices for cloud information records. …
So how do you read these things? Here's an example:
KJFK 242151Z 15009KT 10SM CLR 09/01 A3006 RMK AO2 SLP180 T00940006
Ok, here's the breakdown:
KJFK - Airport Code for John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. This needs to be one of the most reliable weather stations due to sheer air traffic volume they receive.
242151Z - 24th day of the month, the month and year are not included in the METAR. The data was recorded at 21:51 coordinated universal time, which works out to 4:51 pm New York time, Eastern Standard Time, EST.
15009KT - Wind blowing from 150°, the southeast, at 09 knots or about 10 mph. If there is a capital G in this part of the code followed by a number, that means there are gusts, bursts of stronger wind, the speed of which is given in knots.
The speed and direction can be determined by airport wind socks or
anemometers combined with with weather vanes.
10SM - Visibility in statute miles. There could be fractions if visibility is poor. 10 miles shown here is pretty good. If it is bad, visibility can also be recorded in feet for each runway.
CLR - No cloud sky. Rain would be RA, light snow=-SN, Heavy showers=+SH, Fog=FG. There are dozens of other codes used here, but these are the main ones.
If there are clouds, the codes for coverage BKN for broken, OVC for overcast, FEW, SCT for scattered are given. VV indicates the furthest upwards the observer can see and the height in hundreds of feet follow each of these codes. So we might see BKN040 to mean broken clouds 4000 feet high.
layers of cloud can be seen, they will report them all starting with the lowest.
09/01 - gives us Temperature followed by Dew Point in degrees centigrade, aka Celsius. Capital M for minus means below freezing values. To get Fahrenheit temperatures: add 40, divide by 5, multiply by 9, and then subtract 40.
A3006 - Altimeter setting, for pilots. Set it for 30.06 inches of mercury if you flying a plane and departing at this time.
RMK AO2 - RMK means remarks, they may talk about recent weather, cloud types such as CB for cloud cumulonimbus, or other elements. Manned stations have this feature, other stations are automated and cannot elaborate on cloud types and such.
Wind shear - this is a real problem for pilots. We record shear here if present. AO2 is some kind of special code added by NOAA weather stations and not used in all countries.
SLP180 - Pressure. Adjusted for Sea Level. If the number is greater than 500 divide by 10 and add 900. And if it is less than 500, divide by 10 and add 1000 to get millibars. Then you can get kiloPascals by dividing by 10, or inches of mercury by dividing by 33.8653. You'll need a calculator for that one.
T00940006 - Can be ignored, not used by all countries.
This is the kind of flight weather data the official weather stations provide.
When placed on a surface analysis map, the code will look more like this.
Go back from Weather Stations to the Weather Equipment page now.
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