METAR — raw and decoded

How to read the METAR and the flight category.

The METAR is the official airport observation, issued every 30 or 60 minutes (more often with SPECI when weather changes fast). AvioWeather shows both the raw text and the ICAO DOC 7910 decoding.

Raw block

Verbatim in monospace on a dark background on the dashboard, in terminal grey on the app. Below the text you'll find issue time and minutes since observation.

Decoded fields

Wind: direction, speed, gust (if any), variability
Visibility: in meters (Europe) and statute miles, with explicit CAVOK callout when applicable
Clouds: type (FEW/SCT/BKN/OVC) and altitude in feet, up to 4 layers. Ceiling is the first BKN or OVC
Weather: rain, snow, thunderstorm, fog and the 70+ standard ICAO codes
Temperature and dewpoint in °C with spread
QNH in hPa with inHg conversion when relevant

Flight category

Derived from ceiling and visibility per FAA thresholds — VFR (green) > 3000 ft / 5 SM, MVFR (blue) > 1000 / 3, IFR (red) > 500 / 1, LIFR (purple) below. Appears as a coloured pill at the top, and is reused on the TAF, archive and mini-maps.

A METAR older than 3 hours shows a yellow badge; over 6 hours turns red 'STALE'. Not refreshing means flying old data.