Curious about METAR coding?

[Breeze]

I have been "sorta" curious about the METAR coding used by the Observers for a long time. Some I've been able to figure out over time, but if I'm not paying strict attention, I lose the " language" and wind up scratching my head again.

I was going to ask here, but I asked Google instead, and Google helped me find this page:

http://aviationweather.gov/static/help/taf-decode.php

Hope this helps others.

Breeze

[Knapper]

Close but the site you found actually decodes TAF's. They are similar to METAR but differ in many areas. So, don't study that page you found too much. A better resource I used when learning (apart from studying the FMH-1: http://www.ofcm.gov/fmh-1/fmh1.htm) is one of these two sites: http://atmo.tamu.edu/class/metar/quick-metar.html or http://weather.cod.edu/notes/metar.html#sky or if you want something to convert, there are plenty of sites that you can see the original and the decoded ones to see the differences. One is http://leonardo.met.tamu.edu/Weather_Interface/ and the other is http://heras-gilsanz.com/manuel/METAR-Decoder.html. While working at KSJC flight tower, I found learning TAF's took a bit longer to memorize compared to METAR's. But to each their own.

[keithaboltonx21]

Thanks Ryan Knapp for the great resources.