HOW
TO INTERPRET THE METAR (a weather observation report format used by the
aviation industry)
There is a good deal of variety in METAR reports depending on what the station
is set up to record and the state of the weather itself. There is a knack
of reading them that comes with experience - not helped by mixture of metric
and imperial units! |
| Simple
example: EGKK 08950Z 14007KT 090V180 CAVOK 26/17 Q1005 |
| EGKK
= Station identifier (London Gatwick), 08 =
date (8th day of current month), 0950Z = time
(UTC), 140 = wind direction in º, 07KT
= wind speed (knots), 090V180 = variable wind
direction 9between 090º and 180º), CAVOK
= state of sky (cloud and visibility OK), 26/17
= temperature / dewpoint in ºc, Q1005
= barometric pressure in mB/hPa corrected for sea level |
| More
complex example: EDGD 081050Z 17014KT 4600 RA FEW002 BKN003 OVC005 18/18
Q0999 |
| EDGD
= Station identifier (RAF St Mawgan), 08 =
date (8th day of current month ), 1050Z = time
(UTC), 170 = wind direction in º, 14KT
= wind speed (knots), 4600 = visibility in
metres, RA = currently raining, FEW002
= Few clouds at 200ft above sea level, BKN003
= Broken clouds at 300ft above ground level, OVC005
= overcast at 500ft above ground level, 26/17
= temperature / dewpoint in ºc, Q0999
= barometric pressure in mB/hPa corrected for sea level |
