Mil METAR Reports - Chart

[The Otter's Pocket]

Hello All

Does anybody have a link or a scanned copy of the Military Code for the METARs. I cannot find a link on the Met Office Website.

For example, this mornings METAR for Wittering

EGXT 110950Z 24009KT 6000 HZ BKN250 12/11 Q1028 WHT

The WHT I believe stands for White. It would be useful to know the other colours.

I believe there is Red, Yellow, Blue and several others, although I believe that Lilly of the Valley has been omitted.

[c-bert]

Old info - sorry!

[BluntM8]

The colour states are as follows:


Colour = Cloudbase (ft agl)/Vis

Blue = 2500/8km
White = 1500/5km
Green = 700/3.7km
Yellow1 = 500/2.5km
Yellow2 = 300/1.6km
Amber = 200/0.8 km
Red = anything less than amber!

Oh, and theres also Black, which means the runway is unuseable for reasons other than cloudbase or vis!

HTH,

Blunty

[Green Flash]

Wiki wotsitsface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_State

[TacLan]

TOP
If you have a suitable PC/MAC system you may wish to try this
(on your own head, be it)
to to http://widgets.yahoo.com/ and get "yahoo! widgets 4"
Then go to http://www.flightlevel.ch/widgets/aviation_weather/ and get normal version 1.2.3.
You will then be able to load the Aviation Weather Widget which, subject to your preferences may stay on your desktop and display up to 4 selected METAR/TAF's in either raw (as you show in your post) or translated into Amerenglish, with automatic updates. Free lunch anyone?
It works fine on my computer, but as always downloader emptor.

[Butty]

downloader emptor


or rather "caveat downloader" ???

;)

[The Otter's Pocket]

Hi
Thanks evrybody. I will try the download today.

I must admit that Grn is a little lower in vis than I expected! This info should be on the met office website.

I may drop them a line and see if I can win a free pen.

[metman_06]

The reason you won't find a definition of colour states on the MO website is that colour states are only used by military operators. Civil METARs will not contain a text colour state at the end.

Likewise, Civil TAFs are not written to coincide with colour state changes, whereas military ones are. Hope that clears thing up a little.

Cheers,

MM

[slowto280]

KQAJ 041055Z 36003KT 9999 SKC 42/04 A2972 RMK SLP048 T04150043 PA 804 DA 3960


Can anyone help with the last information in this weather for Al Asad?

PA and DA, can't seem to find it anywhere............ :confused:

Thanks much.

[Green Flash]

PA = Pressure altitude, DA = Density Altitude, in feet. It's an American thang. A Very Clever Person will now tell us what PA and DA mean!;)

Edited to add - JSP847, Defence Meteorological Services Manual, refers.

[slowto280]

Pretty good split, warm but not so humid. Field elevation is 618'.

Thanks much.......:ouch:

[FJJP]

You can register on the Met Office website [general aviation]

Met Office: Weather services for aviation (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/ga.html)

Once registered, the full TAF & METAR decode is under help and information in

Met Office: Online services - customer login (http://secure.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/index.jsp)

You can also get weather worldwide if you play around, eg, UK METARS Central Area

Met Office: Online services - customer login (http://secure.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/reports.do?type=METAR&list=02)

130,033 posts???????????????

[[email protected]]

DA = PA plus or minus 120T where T is the difference between the ICAO standard atmosphere at a given PA and the real temperature.

Covert your elevation to PA by adding or subtracting 30' for every millibar your QFE differs from 1013. Then compare actual OAT with what it should be at that PA and multiply the difference between the two by 120 which will give you DA.

The warmer the air the higher the DA, the lower the pressure the higher the DA.

High DA makes your aircraft perform worse as the air is less dense.

[CirrusF]

PA is the altitude in standard atmosphere at the pressure measured at site - it gives you an idea of how how an aircraft will perform aerodynamically, so necessary for take-off and landing performance calculations. Also an indication of how a jet engine performance will be affected, as jet engines are just lots of whirling wings..

DA is the altitude in standard atmosphere at the density measured at site - primarily is a measure of how the pilot will feel in a non-pressurised aircraft as it correlates closely to oxygen partial pressure, and is also relevant for performance of non-turbo piston engines.

OK, its not an exact science, but more or less without going into lots of detail that is how the figures can be interpreted..

[The Real Slim Shady]

You might find this (http://www.met.tamu.edu/class/metar/quick-metar.html) decoder handy.