Weather Resources
Metorological Aerodome Report (METAR)
A METAR is a worldwide standardized aviation weather report providing current reports from weather stations, most often found at controlled airports. Typically issued hourly, METARs provide critical meteorological condition information such as cloud cover, wind speed and direction, visibility, and temperature. METARs serve as a high quality, hyper-local, current report of weather conditions. As such, METARs can be relied on for day-of decision making purposes.
Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF)
Complimentary to the current weather reporting of a METAR, Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts provides weather forecast predictions geared toward aviation. Typically covering a 24-30 hour period, TAFs are issued four times daily, providing detailed forecasts for cloud cover, winds aloft, visibility, temperature, and other weather phenomena. TAFs can be relied on for accurate near-future forecasts for flight operation decision making.
METAR/TAF List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Additional Resources
While METARs and TAFs provide some of the highest quality localized current and near-term forecasting data available, operators may wish to integrate multiple sources of data to corroborate reports, as well as gaining access to longer term weather forecasts.
In the United States, NOAA provides high quality weather resources in a variety of formats.
Tools such as Weather Underground are also recommended for their aggregation of data from a variety of sources, ranging from commercial and government sources, to personal weather stations run by community members. For UAS and remote sensing applications, Weather Underground can be a valuable resource for assessing localized weather variability that might not be captured by regional forecasts or airport-based observations.
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