METAR clause I've never seen before

[douglasheld]

The METAR this morning for London Luton is:
LONDON LUTON EGGW 050650Z 00000KT 1200 R08/P1500 BR OVC002 M01/M01 Q1023 R08/6102//

I'd never seen this additional runway visibility in use: R08/P1500. According to Metar decode (http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metinfo/codes/METAR_decode.htm) the P means for this particular measure it's beyond the measuring limits. But is that above or below?

Also this R08/6102// at the end... any idea what that means?

With my eyes I can see there's fresh snow on the ground, and it's misty.

[high-flyer]

Morning,

R08/P1500 means on runway 08 the IRVR readings are all in excess of 1500m.



The code you've seen is the MOTNE code. You can find out more information here...

Weather (MOTNE) (http://www.hilmerby.com/fom/proc_motne.html)

Your code, R08/6102// decodes to:

R08 = Runway 08
6 = type of deposit = Slush
1 = Extent of coverage = Less than 10% runway covered
02 = depth of contamination = 2mm
// = Braking Action - // = not reported or runway not operational.

Hope this helps

high-flyer

[seilfly]

If that is MOTNE... Is that "R" supposed to be preceding the numbers?

[Andy Mayes]

If that is MOTNE... Is that "R" supposed to be preceding the numbers?

No. It shouldn't be there.

[douglasheld]

Thanks! I should marry a met girl; this stuff is a black art.

[Andy Mayes]

Scrub that. It is supposed to be there! Its the new format (I say new, I think it came in November 2011, today will be the first time I've used it).