That is great food for thought, I shall investigate further. Thank you.

Well
The braking efficiency report in Rusland differs from European. So check it with the AIP please. Flying here is embarrasing sometimes. Take some xtra fuel and have conversion tables for FL in meters and it'll be OK.
I heard once the flight controller in DME asked 3 times one guy on final If their landing gear was down. Stange, but he followed the regulations.

ICAO doesn't directly handle METAR/TAF codes. These are delegated to WMO and are thoroughly explained in the Manual on Codes (doc 306) found at the bottom of this page: http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/WMOCodes.html - you want FM-15 for METAR, FM-16 for SPECI and FM-51 for TAF, found in Vol 1 part A and Regional Codes in Vol 2.

Thanks for the useful link, Selfin.

However in this WMO FM 51 about TAF's, I can't find anything about these 6-group icing forecast. Therefore I supposes that is not international but country specific. Apart from Russia, which other countries use it? Anyone?

Thanks,
Sabenaboy

PS: could it be that MrBernouillie was confusing this 6-group with a 8 figure RSM himself in his reply nr 6?

Oddly you'll need to look at FM 53 (ARFOR) for the icing and turbulence forecast groups. I have a feeling these two forecast groups are not strictly required in TAF reports, but you'll want to read all the notes in the respective document to clarify this.

I got the following explanation.

CIS uses its own friction coefficients. However, for data disseminaton such as METAR (RSM) and SNOWTAM information, standard ICAO values would be used.

This is supported by:

• Yesterday SVO METAR-RSM showing FC at 27. Also SNOWTAM issued with "H/27/27/27 by SFT". SFT is the important part for me, RSM is just in-line with the SNOWTAM.
• On Jepp ATC chapter, national differences show no alternations in meteorological reports.
• Later on, ACARS METAR-RSM at 31, ATIS reports dry patches snow BA-3, landed and it felt like medium, marginally medium. ;)
• ATIS English does NOT report FC but BA instead (to prevent confusion?)

Obviously ATC spoken FC infrormation is not to be trusted as there is no way of telling which coefficient they are reporting.

FD.

Taf Decoding Moscow
 

HI
this is a six-figure group which can be either a TAF ICING GROUP or a TAF TURBULENCE group
in this case it is an icing group
1st digit 6 means it is an icing group
2nd digit is the type of icing...see below
3rd,4th and 5th digits indicate the base of the icing layer in hundreds of feet
6th digit indicate the thickness of the icing layer in thousands of feet AGL
type of icing 2nd digit
o.....no icing
1.....light icing
2.....light icing in clouds
3.....light icing in precipitation
4.....moderate icing
5.....moderate icing in clouds
6.....moderate icing in precipitation
7.....severe icing
8.....severe icing in clouds
9.....severe icing in precipitation