METAR, decoded. The airport’s weather telegram.
Pilots do not get their weather as a paragraph. They get it as a single line of code — a METAR — packed with wind, visibility, clouds, and pressure, and updated every hour. It looks like gibberish until you know the order. Then it reads like a sentence.
WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS.
One line, the whole sky over one airport.
METAR stands for Meteorological Aerodrome Report. It is the standard coded observation an airport station issues, usually once an hour, describing the weather at that exact spot at that exact time. The code is compact on purpose — it has to travel worldwide and be readable by any pilot, forecaster, or computer in seconds.
READING THE CODE.
Station, time, wind, sky — always in that order.
A METAR opens with the airport code and the day and time in UTC — KJFK 241451Z means New York’s Kennedy airport on the 24th at 14:51 UTC. Next comes wind: 28012KT is wind from 280 degrees at 12 knots, with a G for gusts when they exist. Then visibility and weather (10SM is 10 statute miles of clear air; -RA is light rain), then cloud layers from lowest up (FEW050 is a few clouds at 5,000 feet), then temperature and dew point (22/14), and finally the altimeter setting (A2992). Read left to right and the line tells the whole story.
WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU.
The freshest ground truth there is.
Forecasts guess; METARs report. Because they come from instruments on the ground every hour, they are the freshest check on what the sky is actually doing right now at that airport — which is why storm watchers peek at them during severe weather. For your own plans, Brzzy’s forecast, live radar, and activity ratings turn the same kind of ground truth into a plain-language answer: go outside, or wait it out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a METAR in weather?
METAR stands for Meteorological Aerodrome Report. It is the standard coded weather observation an airport station issues, usually once an hour, describing wind, visibility, weather, clouds, temperature, dew point, and pressure at that airport.
How do you read a METAR?
Left to right, in fixed order: airport code, day and time in UTC, wind direction and speed, visibility, present weather, cloud layers lowest first, temperature and dew point, then the altimeter setting. For example, 28012KT means wind from 280 degrees at 12 knots.
What does KJFK 241451Z mean?
KJFK is the airport code for New York’s Kennedy airport, and 241451Z means the observation was taken on the 24th of the month at 14:51 UTC (the Z stands for Zulu time, aviation’s name for UTC).
How often is a METAR updated?
Usually once an hour, with a special report (SPECI) issued in between when conditions change significantly — a sudden drop in visibility, a gust front, or a thunderstorm arriving, for example.
Does Brzzy show METARs?
Brzzy shows your local forecast with hourly updates, live radar, severe weather alerts, GIF forecasts, and activity ratings that weigh the sky for your plans. Brzzy is free to download on iPhone.
More from Brzzy:
Download Brzzy Weather
