Decode an aviation weather report field by field — station, wind, visibility, sky, temperature, and altimeter — then turn it into a VFR or IFR decision.
A METAR is a routine observation of the weather at an airport — wind, visibility, clouds, temperature, and pressure, right now. It looks like a wall of codes, but it is always the same fields in the same order, so once you can read one you can read them all.
KXXX 121853Z 27012G18KT 10SM FEW050 SCT120 BKN250 24/13 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP142
KXXX
The ICAO identifier of the reporting airport.
121853Z
12th of the month, 1853 UTC — the “Z” means Zulu (UTC), never local time.
27012G18KT
From 270° at 12 knots, gusting 18. VRB = variable direction; 00000KT = calm.
10SM
10 statute miles. Fractions like 1/2SM signal low visibility.
FEW050 SCT120 BKN250
Few at 5,000 ft, scattered at 12,000 ft, broken at 25,000 ft AGL — heights are in hundreds of feet.
24/13
Temperature 24°C, dewpoint 13°C. An M prefix means minus (M03 = −3°C). A close spread hints at fog or low clouds.
A2998
Altimeter setting 29.98 inHg — set this in your Kollsman window.
RMK AO2 SLP142
Automated station with a precip sensor (AO2); sea-level pressure 1014.2 hPa.
Ceiling and visibility together set the flight category. It is the fastest way to size up a report at a glance.
VFR
Ceiling > 3,000 ft AND visibility > 5 SM
MVFR
Ceiling 1,000–3,000 ft and/or vis 3–5 SM
IFR
Ceiling 500–999 ft and/or vis 1–< 3 SM
LIFR
Ceiling < 500 ft and/or vis < 1 SM
FlightKit decodes the METAR and TAF for any US airport into plain language, with the flight category, winds, and a go/no-go-ready summary — no mental decoding required.
A METAR is a routine aviation weather observation for an airport — what the weather is doing right now at the surface. It is the standard report pilots use during preflight and inflight to check current conditions at departure, en route, and destination airports.
Routine METARs are issued about once an hour, usually near 53 minutes past the hour. When conditions change significantly between routine reports — a wind shift, dropping visibility, a thunderstorm — a special report called a SPECI is issued off-schedule.
Aviation runs on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), called Zulu, so reports are unambiguous across time zones. 1853Z is 18:53 UTC. Convert to your local time by applying your UTC offset.
A METAR is an observation — the weather happening now. A TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) is a forecast — the expected weather over roughly the next 24–30 hours within about 5 statute miles of the airport. You read the METAR for current conditions and the TAF for what is coming.
The “A” group is the altimeter setting in inches of mercury, with an implied decimal: A2992 is 29.92 inHg. You dial that into the Kollsman window so your altimeter reads true field elevation.
A ceiling is the height of the lowest broken (BKN) or overcast (OVC) cloud layer — the lowest layer covering more than half the sky. FEW and SCT layers are not ceilings because they cover less than half. The ceiling, with visibility, determines the VFR/MVFR/IFR flight category.