Bet-Winning Factoids

A poopy day at the airport finds you and your buddies sitting around engaged in a serious session of hangar flying. You decide to amaze the other airport bums with some interesting factoids about METARs and maybe even win a beer bet in the process.

Editorial Staff

Wednesday, September 09, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

METAR remarks provide specific codes indicating the station's automation level (A01/A02) or if it requires maintenance ($).
The PRESRR notation signifies rapidly rising pressure, often due to frontal passage, alerting to potential low-level wind shear.
Precipitation amounts (P####) indicate recent rainfall, with higher values (e.g., P0020+) suggesting standing water on runways.
International METARs, particularly in Europe, may feature CAVOK for good weather conditions or NATO airfield color codes (e.g., RED, BLUE) for specific weather states.

See a mistake? Contact us.

A METAR report ending in A01 or A02 is an automated station. A01 means no precipitation discriminator exists, so precipitation type cannot be reported. A02 means a precipitation discriminator does exist. The absence of A01 or A02 tells you the site is human augmented.