We simply input its ICAO airport code (PHNL), and if we select the “raw” METAR we get a line that looks like this: Let’s take a look at the current METAR (at time of writing) for Honolulu (HNL). A Lufthansa A320 comes in to land at Amsterdam (AMS) on a beautiful CAVOK day. It’s also the place to go for METAR reports. If you’re an airman you can also go there to submit a PIREP, or “pilot report,” of actual weather conditions you’ve encountered. There’s plenty of other very detailed information, including various maps detailing forecasts for icing, winds and so on. Their graphical turbulence map of the US might be of particular interest to some. It’s run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also known as NOAA, one of the most comprehensive sources for weather data in the world. The agency provides a rich array of weather data to aviators and even for the non-pilot it can be interesting to take a look around at their data. To start with, it might help to familiarize yourself with the Aviation Weather Center in the US. A Bombardier Challenger at Athens International (ATH) with lightning in the background So in case you one day wish to become a pilot or are just hoping to one day impress a pilot, here’s a quick explanation of how to decode a METAR. Once they get used to reading a METAR pilots can see all the relevant weather info for a given airfield at a glance. You’ll see that METAR reports are given under the weather tab for airports on Flightradar24. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ensures it is standardized throughout the world, although there are still some regional variations in the units used. METAR is an acronym that stands for Meteorological Terminal Air Report, and it’s a highly practical way to transmit weather data that’s primarily used by pilots. METAR's are the hourly/standard report, and then there's SPECI's which if certain changes occur in conditions, from Freezing Rain, to changes in visibility or cloud ceilings, to massive wind shifts, to thunderstorms, to other factors, can be produced outside of the hourly/regular report.Spend any time around aviation types and the term METAR will likely come up. RA means light rain, which if just using vis concerns is defined as, "From scattered drops that, regardless of duration, do not completely wet an exposed surface up to a condition where individual drops are easily seen." RA, is Moderate Rain, defined as: "Individual drops are not clearly identifiable spray is observable just above pavements and other hard surfaces" and +RA is heavy Rain, "Rain seemingly falls in sheets individual drops are not identifiable heavy spray to height of several inches is observed over hard surfaces."Īlso, METAR is the type of aviation weather report. RA, RA, +RA, are the various descriptors for Rain. It's depicted as SM, due to most other things in aviation being in Nautical Miles. SM = Statute Miles, which is like a regular mile that most people use in their daily lives. RA can often be easily seen through, RA or RA+ do become harder to see through, and as always, it can be dependant on where the -RA is, if it's only in a tiny quadrant of the horizon circle, it can often be a greater visibility. KBJC(when I worked there it was a completely manual station), we'd report anywhere up to 70SM or higher visibility, due to our visibility markers. Now if you look at stations that are completely manual, i.e. This is the visibility that is considered representative of visibility conditions at the station."Īutomated stations, generally report a max visibility of 10 SM. Visibility is defined as "Visibility is a measure of the horizontal opacity of the atmosphere at the point of observation and is expressed in terms of the horizontal distance at which a person should be able to see and identify specific objects."Īll METARs report Prevailing Visibility, which is: "Prevailing visibility is the greatest visibility equaled or exceeded throughout at least half the horizon circle, which does not necessarily have to be continuous. All my quotes for this post comes from FAA Order 7900.5C, the Surface Weather Observing Guide.
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