Mastering the Metar

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:49 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Many new airline pilot applicants surprisingly struggle with decoding basic METAR weather reports, an essential skill for making critical go/no-go decisions in marginal weather.
METARs and SPECI reports are structured with information always presented in a specific, consistent order (e.g., Where, When, Wind, Visibility, Hazards, Clouds, Temp/Dew Point, Altimeter, Remarks).
Understanding this fixed order and the specific abbreviations used in each section is key to accurately interpreting the reports, which the article demonstrates through a detailed breakdown of a sample METAR.

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I was surprised when I read recently that many new airline pilot job applicants struggle with decoding basic metar weather reports. It would seem to me that if you’ve done enough flying to reach the interview stage with a commercial carrier, you would have interpreted hundreds if not thousands of metars along the way.

Maybe it’s the invention of software that can translate metars into “plain English” that has caused such befuddlement among would-be airline pilots. Still, with a little practice metars aren’t hard to grasp – and being able to do so could save your bacon if you’re staring down an un-translated report and need to make a go/no-go decision in marginal weather.