Aviation weather
Live METAR, TAF and wind for any airport — on a tower-style weather display.
Search by ICAO code (OMDB), IATA code (DXB) or airport name. You get the current observation decoded the way a control tower shows it: the wind on a dial with the runways drawn in, head- and crosswind for every runway, QNH and QFE, temperature and dew point, visibility, cloud and the ceiling. Below that are the forecast and the last six hours of reports.
Enter an airport to see its weather.
Reading the display
The wind dial is the instrument every tower cab has. The arrow comes in from the direction the wind is blowing from — a westerly wind arrives from the left of the dial — with the speed in knots in the middle and any gust in amber beneath it. When the direction is swinging (a METAR group like 270V330) the arc it covers is shaded amber around the edge. The airport's runways are drawn on the dial at their true headings, so you can see at a glance which way the wind crosses them. Directions are in degrees true, as METARs report them; the tower's spoken wind and the runway numbers are magnetic, which differs by the local variation shown in the header.
Runway wind components break the wind down for each runway end: how much of it is a headwind (or a tailwind) along the runway and how much blows across it. Aircraft take off and land into wind, so the end with the most headwind — marked into wind — is normally the one in use. A tailwind over 5–10 kt or a crosswind of 20–30 kt reaches the limits of many aircraft, and the table flags both.
QNH is the pressure setting that makes an altimeter read the airport's elevation on the ground — the setting every arrival is given. QFE, worked out here from QNH and the elevation, makes it read zero on the runway instead. Density altitude combines the pressure with the temperature: on a hot day at a high airport the air is thin, and an aircraft performs as if it were thousands of feet higher than it is.
What is a METAR?
A METAR is the routine aviation weather observation, issued every 30 or 60 minutes at most airports, and as a SPECI whenever the weather changes significantly in between. It is written in a compact international code. Take METAR EHAM 102325Z 30016KT 270V330 9999 -SHRA FEW015 FEW028CB 10/07 Q1008 TEMPO 6000 SHRA:
| Group | Meaning |
|---|---|
| EHAM 102325Z | Amsterdam Schiphol, the 10th of the month at 23:25 UTC |
| 30016KT 270V330 | Wind from 300° at 16 knots, varying between 270° and 330° |
| 9999 | Visibility 10 km or more (US reports use statute miles: 10SM) |
| -SHRA | Light rain showers |
| FEW015 FEW028CB | Few clouds at 1,500 ft, and a few cumulonimbus (thunderstorm clouds) at 2,800 ft |
| 10/07 | Temperature 10 °C, dew point 7 °C |
| Q1008 | QNH 1008 hPa (US: A2992, inches of mercury) |
| TEMPO 6000 SHRA | The trend for the next two hours: temporarily 6 km in rain showers |
CAVOK — ceiling and visibility OK — replaces the visibility, weather and cloud groups when the visibility is 10 km or more, there is no cloud below 5,000 ft and no significant weather. Cloud amounts are in eighths of the sky (oktas): FEW 1–2, SCT scattered 3–4, BKN broken 5–7 and OVC overcast 8. The lowest broken or overcast layer is the ceiling.
The TAF
A TAF — Terminal Aerodrome Forecast — covers the airport for the next 24 or 30 hours, using the same code as the METAR. The first part is the forecast at the start; change groups follow. BECMG is a lasting change happening gradually over the period given, TEMPO temporary fluctuations lasting less than an hour at a time, FM a complete change from a given time, and PROB30 or PROB40 a 30 or 40 per cent chance. The table under the forecast lays each period out with its times.
Flight categories
The coloured badge is the airport's flight category, from the ceiling and visibility together — whichever is worse decides it:
| Category | Ceiling | Visibility |
|---|---|---|
| VFR | above 3,000 ft | more than 5 statute miles (8 km) |
| MVFR marginal VFR | 1,000–3,000 ft | 3–5 statute miles |
| IFR | 500 to below 1,000 ft | 1 to less than 3 statute miles |
| LIFR low IFR | below 500 ft | less than 1 statute mile |
Where the data comes from
Observations, forecasts and runway data are from the Aviation Weather Center of the US National Weather Service (NOAA), which collects METARs and TAFs from weather services around the world. Lookups are cached for a couple of minutes, and the display refreshes itself every five minutes while it is open. Airports that do not issue METARs — many small airfields — have no weather here.
Not for flight planning. This page is part of a game and is provided for interest and training only. Weather data can be delayed, incomplete or wrong, and the decoded values and calculations are automatic. Before any real flight, get an official briefing from your national meteorological service, an approved flight-planning provider or your operator.
Fly in it
In the ATC Radar Simulator you set the wind and QNH for each session in the New Session dialog — copy them from an airport here and the wind decides your runway, your downwind and how hard the crosswind pushes your arrivals off the final. See the airports you can control, check their NOTAMs, then take the seat.
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