What is a METAR?
METAR is an aviation routine weather report issued at hourly or half-hourly intervals. It is a description of the meteorological elements observed at an airport at a specific time.
Pilots should check METARs for the areas they intend flying to, as close to their departure as possible, because as we know, the weather in Scotland can be a bit “Changeable”
Click HERE to go to the MET Office website for Pilots (requires registration – HERE to register or HERE to login)
You may need to pick a different area if yours isn’t listed (EG, PERTH (EGPT) would need to pick DUNDEE (EGPN)
To a new pilot, these METARs can bit a bit confusing at first.
This is an example: ( not very user friendly)
EGPN 230720Z 25003KT 9999 SCT020 16/13 Q1016
There is a very handy website HERE called “The Hangar” which finds and decodes the METARS into plain english – VERY HANDY 🙂
In plain english is….
This is a METAR report for EGPN – DUNDEE .
The report was made 28Â minutes ago, at 07:20 UTC.
The wind was blowing at a speed of 3 knots (3.5 miles per hour, 1.5 metres per second) from the West/Southwest (250°).
The visibility was greater than 6.2 miles (greater than 10 kilometres).
There were scattered clouds at a height of 2000 feet (610 metres).
The temperature was 16°C (61°F), a dew point of 13°C (55°F) and a relative humidity of 82.4%.
The altimeter setting (airfield QNH) was 1,016 hPa (30.00 inHg).