Lab Exercises

Goals:

• Learn how to find and use ICAO and WMO station identifiers
• Learn to read and create observation codes (METARs)
• Learn to read and create forecast codes (TAFs)
• Learn how to get current METARs and TAFs for any station.

Method: Students learn to interpret these codes using the web-based resources listed below.

A. Overview

1. What does the contraction or acronym METAR stand for? (AMS Glossary)
2. What does the contraction or acronym SPECI stand for?
3. What does the contraction or acronym TAF stand for?
4. Why do these meteorological codes exist, who uses them, and how are they used? (US NWS)

B. Weather Station Identification (Station IDs):

1. Define the following acronyms (station location info):
   1. ICAO (Hint, also use the UCAR site)
   2. WMO
2. (NWS Station Info Look-up , or a text file of all stations in the world )
   What are the ICAO identifiers for the 2 stations closest to you, from the following list:
   1. Seattle (Seattle-Tacoma International airport), Washington (WA)
   2. State College, Pennsylvania (PA)
   3. Madison, Wisconsin (WI)
   4. Fort Collins, Colorado (CO)
   5. Norman, Oklahoma (OK)
   6. Vancouver (Vancouver International airport), British Columbia (BC) Canada
   7. Toronto (Pearson International airport), Ontario (ON) Canada
   8. Montreal (Mirabel airport), Quebec (QC) Canada
   9. Paris (Aeroport Charles De Gaulle), France
   10. London (Heathrow airport), UK

C. Decode the following data from CYVR Vancouver BC, Canada:

1. METAR CYVR 252000Z 09011KT 10SM -SHRA FEW018 SCT035 BKN050 OVC110 09/06 A2980 RMK SF2SC2SC2AC2 SLP093 ( METAR/TAF Quick Guide , Quick Guide, Explanation of METAR/TAF abbreviations, full guide, AWC pdf files of explanation of contractions or sorted by word/meaning )
   
2. SPECI CYVR 252036Z 07015KT 15SM FEW018 SCT040 OVC098 RMK SF2SC2AC4 PRESFR OCNL RW-
   
3. TAF CYVR 252238Z 252323 09015KT 6SM -RA SCT015 BKN030 TEMPO 2305 6SM -SHRA BKN015 FM0500Z 13012KT P6SM SCT020 BKN040 TEMPO 0523 P6SM -SHRA BKN020 RMK NXT FCST BY 02Z= ( METAR/TAF Quick Guide , AWC TAF Decoder , Full guide )

D. For Denver (Denver International Airport), Colorado, USA, what are the:

1. WMO index number identifier (5 digits) (NWS)
2. ICAO location identifier (4 letters)
3. Official name of the weather station
4. Latitude, longitude, elevation
5. Do they launch weather balloons from this site, or nearby? (Hint: "upper air" refers to info from weather balloons. Compare the lat/long of the upper air site with the lat/long of the surface weather observation site.)
6. Get and print out (or copy and paste into your answer sheet) the current METAR in both raw format and translated form. (AWC, hint: select the "translated" button to get both)

 

E. For Toronto (Pearson International Airport), Ontario, Canada, what are the:

1. WMO index number identifier (5 digits) (NWS)
2. ICAO location identifier (4 letters)
3. Official name of the weather station
4. Latitude, longitude, elevation
5. Do they launch weather balloons from this site, or nearby?
6. Get and print out (or copy and paste into your answer sheet) the current TAF, and decode it into English. (AWC, or NavCanada which has both the coded and the decoded plain-language forecasts)

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Resources

Station List and Identifiers (IDs)

• Station Info Look-up of ICAO Weather Station Identifiers (includes lists by country & city) (from NWS)
• WMO List of Canadian Weather Stations & Observation Times (from EC)
• List of Canadian automatic surface weather stations (from NWS)
• List of Weather Stations in BC (From Seattle NWS)
• Given ID anywhere in world, find city name & location info (UNISYS)
• Country prefixes for ICAO and WMO Station ID codes (UNISYS)
• Links to Many other Lists of Station IDs (UNISYS)
• Map of some surface observation stations in N. America (AMS DataStreme)
• Map of reporting stations in and near Canada (from EC)

Explanation on How to Read and Write Meteorological Codes for Surface Weather Observations and Forecasts

• US NWS: On why meteorological codes exist.
• METAR/TAF Frequently Asked Questions (AWC-NWS)
• Basics of METARs and TAFs (FAA)
• METAR Lab from Texas A&M Univ.
• Flight Standards Guide (FAA, pdf info on METAR & TAF)
• Reading Codes:
  • US Aviation Weather Center: TAF decoder
  • Live raw & decoded US METARs (US NWS)
  • Live raw & decoded US & Canadian METARs (TAMU) .
  • Brief explanation of METAR and TAF codes (NavCanada) .
  • Live raw & decoded Canadian METARS (from US NWS)
  • Live raw and decoded Canadian METARs and TAFs (NavCanada)
• Writing Codes:
  • Terminal Forecast Coding .
  • US NWS Meteorology Handbook
  • US NWS Meteorology Handbook - Coding Instructions
  • US Navy METAR Manual
• Contractions & acronyms (used for decoding the abbreviations used in METARs and TAFs)
  • US AWC: Full list of contractions and pdf version .
  • US FAA: Concise summary of contractions for both METARs and TAFs
  • US NWS: List of acronyms and abbreviations
  • US Navy: Summary of contractions and abbreviations
  • US FAA Alsaka region info: List of acronyms

Current Weather Observations (METARs) and Forecasts (TAFs)

• Coded METARs and TAFs for anywhere in the world (from US NWS) .
  • METARs (NWS)
  • TAFs (NWS)
• Live raw & decoded METARs for anywhere (US NWS)
• Live raw & decoded METARS & model fcsts, zone fcsts, warnings (TAMU)
• Live raw & plain English decoded TAFs & METARS for Canada (map or text) from NavCanada
• TAF graphics (maps of forecast conditions, US AWC)
• METARS, TAFs and other weather data for Europe (NL)

Misc US & Canada Info:

• Other good METAR/TAF links (from NWS)
• Downloadable software for decoding weather data (from NWS)
• Manuals of observations, etc. (from EC)

http://www.eos.ubc.ca/courses/atsc201/A201text/BrooksCole/MetSciEngr/index.html
Copyright © 2005 by Roland Stull
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