metar-taf-decoder
METARTAF

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METAR and TAF decoder

Enter the ICAO of an airport to retrieve a decoded METAR or TAF. Enter a METAR or TAF code to have it decoded.

Enter an ICAO code or raw METAR/TAF→Decode in real time→Read the human-friendly result

Get a metar for an airport

Decode a metar

METAR (METeorological Aviation Report) reports weather information for an airport. The first part of the message is the ICAO code of the station.

Then the delivery time of the METAR is coded. The first two digits represent the day of the month, the last four represent the time.

METAR contain information regarding the wind, the visibility, the different cloud covers, the temperature, the dew point and the atmospheric pressure. It also contains data about the current weather and weather trends.

The format of the METAR is the following:

AAAA: Station identifier: AAAA. It is the ICAO code of the station.

Wind information:

  • ddd: represents the direction.
  • ss: represents the speed of the wind.
  • KT: for knots is the unit of the speed. MPS meters per seconds is also a valid unit.
  • Ggg: is present only if there are gusts. The three digits after the G are the gust speed.

DDHHmmZ: Delivery time of the report: DDHHmmZ. DD represents the day of the month. HHmm represents the hours and the minutes. The final Z represents the ZULU time zone.

VVVV: represents the visibility in meters or VVVVSM when the visibility is in nautical miles (SM).

RAAa/VVVV: represents the runway visual range. It must starts with an R followed by the name of the runway and a / The digits after the / are the visual range.

ww: Multiple coded words representing the current weather.

NNNhhh: Multiple coded words representing the cloud layers

T'T'/T'dT'd: for the temperature and the dew point. If the temperature or the dew point are below 0 they are preceded by a M

QPPPP for the altimeter. If it starts by a Q the unit is hPA, if it starts by an A the unit is inHg

RMK: starts the remark part of the METAR and contains complementary information.

TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) reports weather forecast information. They are valid for 30 hours and are generally issued every 6 hours.

TAF are usually split in lines with the first line containing the delivery date, the validity period, information regarding the wind, visibility, cloud cover and weather at delivery time. Then each lines describe changes to come, they start by BECMG/TEMPO/FM and contain several changes for the next hours.

The format of the TAF is the following:

For the first line:

Report type: TAF

Validity of forecast: DDDD/DDDD: The part before the / represents the starting day and hour of the TAF validity, the part after the / represents the ending day and hour of the validity.

For the next lines:

The type of change: BECMG, TEMPO, FM, PROB

The validity of the change: DDHH/DDHH

If the change is of type FM there is no space between FM and the validity