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The METAR (METeorological Airport Report) is a regular meteorological observation message which is, for some airports completed by a short-term forecast.
This is an observation message including information on wind, visibility, current weather, clouds, temperatures and barometric pressure.
Here is a bulletin for Luxembourg.
| METAR | | Date | 19/03/2010 | | 2050 | | Vent | 20003KT v | | Visibilité | CAVOK | | Température | 13 °C | | Point de rosée | 05 °C | | QFE | 970.9 hPa | | QNH | 1015 hPa | | Tendance | NOSIG | | |
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All pilots should have this information before a flight.
A METAR message is issued every 30 minutes i.e. on the hour +20 minutes and on the hour +50 minutes (indicated time is universal time)
The order of the meteorological parameters in a METAR is as follows:
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Aerodrome concerned
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Date and time of validity (expressed in universal time)
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Surface wind - direction in degrees with respect to geographical North, speed in knots (1 knot = 1.852 km/hour)
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Horizontal visibility expressed in metres
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Meteors (meteorological phenomena affecting visibility)
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Clouds - quantity expressed in English: (FEW , SCATTERED , BROKEN , OVERCAST ) and height expressed in feet above the Aerodrome
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Air temperature and dew point
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QNH (pressure reduced to sea level according to ICAO criteria)
- When needed
- wind shearing
- recent significant meteors
- runway surface condition (snowbound, braking coefficient)
- trend for the next two hours (NOSIG = NO-SIGnificant change)
SPECI (SPECIal) is a message edited between two METAR’s in case of some parameters changing significantly.
A significant change in weather between two observations must be reported by a SPECI message which will be amended depending on the weather changes.
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