How do you read a METAR?

A METAR is a coded snapshot of current weather at an airport. It runs in a fixed order: station, date and time in UTC, wind, visibility, present weather, cloud layers, temperature and dew point, then the altimeter setting. Paste one above and each group is translated for you.

What is the difference between a METAR and a TAF?

A METAR is an observation of what the weather is doing right now. A TAF is a forecast of what it is expected to do over the next 24 to 30 hours for the area around an airport. Both use the same coding.

What does BKN015 mean?

BKN means a broken cloud layer, which counts as a ceiling, and 015 is its height in hundreds of feet above the ground, so 1,500 feet AGL.

Home Tools METAR & TAF Decoder

METAR & TAF Decoder

Raw aviation weather looks like a wall of code. Paste a METAR or TAF and read it back in plain English, one group at a time, with every abbreviation explained.

Paste a raw METAR or TAF

METARRoutine hourly observation
KDENReporting station KDEN
141953ZObserved on the 14th at 19:53 UTC (Zulu)
27015G25KTWind from 270° (W) at 15 kt, gusting to 25 kt
10SMVisibility 10 statute miles
FEW070Few clouds at 7,000 ft
SCT120Scattered clouds at 12,000 ft
BKN250Broken clouds at 25,000 ft
28/06Temperature 28°C, dew point 06°C
A2992Altimeter 29.92 inHg
RMKRemarks (coded notes for forecasters follow)
AO2Remark code

How a METAR is built

Every report follows the same order, which is what makes it readable once you know the pattern: the station identifier, the date and time in UTC (Zulu), the wind as direction and speed, visibility, any present weather, the cloud layers from lowest to highest, the temperature and dew point, and finally the altimeter setting. Remarks after RMK are coded notes mostly meant for forecasters.

Reading weather is one of the biggest early hurdles, and it is tested across the Private Pilot, Instrument, and Part 107 writtens. Decode a few real reports here, then drill the weather questions until the code reads like a sentence.