What's happenned to TAFs?

[22/04]

What has happenned to 9 hour TAFs and why are the 24 hour TAFs now littered with redundant date information (at least where I get mine from)

[Don Coyote]

Met Office: Changes to TAF format relating to migration to 30 hour TAF periods (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/news/changes/taf.html)

[Mile_Hi]

Very funny..I turned up to the crew room and couldn't read the weather....It was early!!!:confused:

[cessnagirl]

Exactly, what happened to the tafs?????

They are easy enough to read and understand, but now this 30 hour stuff. Don't know about that. I'm a pilot myself but work as a flight planning officer and I just don't think the wx can really be done as accurately that far in advance. The met guys will put a shed load of probable stuff in the tafs to cover themselves and update them when something new comes up.

For flight planning purposes, this new system can be an issue for aerodromes that don't produce long tafs. Also, I can see airlines taking more fuel on flights due wx forecasts than they would normally do. Not good considering the price of fuel. We as pilots and dispatchers need to think a bit more outside the box with this one and use our wx charts and other available resources to form a clearer picture.

Personally, I miss the short tafs.:sad:

[Sky Wave]

cessnagirl

I don't think it's as bad as you think.

Although I do agree a 30 hour forecast is probably a bridge too far for an accurate forecast they are updated every 6 hours so the first 9 hours of you 30 hour forecast will be as accurate as a short TAF.

The old Long TAF's used to be issued 7 hours in advance of the TAF starting. Example issued at 16:30 Valid 0024. So the old long TAF was always forecasting 31.5 hours ahead and even the first part of the 24 hour forecast was 7 hours out of date!!

Under the new system all TAF's are issued less than an hour before they come into effect.

Met Office: Changes to Civilian TAF issue/validity times (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/news/changes/civilian.html)

The only thing that's gone backwards is that a short TAF used to be issued every 3 hours where as the airfields which only get Long TAF's will now only get an update every 6 hours. That said, if there's a significant change to the forecast the met office include the statement All TAFs will be monitored and may be re-issued as Amendments at any time.

There used to be plenty of occasions when a 9 hour TAF was not long enough for a particular operation so we had to look at the 24 hour TAF. So a more accurate (because it was issued later) Long TAF is very welcome in my opinion.

You soon get used to the extra digits in TAF.

All in All, I think it's a win win situation.

Folk just don't like change :)