METAR (METeorological Airport Report) describe the current conditions as observed by the weather tower at an airport. These are reliable, updated frequently, although incredibly terse. Similarly, TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) report the coming conditions including trends and temporary changes typically for the next twelve to twenty-four hours. The format takes a little getting used.

I’ve compiled a number of reports for a select few cities in the north Atlantic and compressed them into a format the plays nicely with mobile telephones. For the benefit of humans, I’ve prepended the Metar decoded. Let’s check out the balmy Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord):

Metar


BGSF 071750Z 04005KT 5000 -SN OVC035 M11/M12 Q1008


BGSF is the airport code (ICAO) followed by the time of the report at UTC. The first two digits represent the day of the month (in this case the seventh) while the next four are the hour (24-hour) and minute (Z refers to Zulu or UTC), thus 17:50.

The next three digits refer to the wind direction (the direction from which the wind comes) over 360 degrees, where 0 is north, 90 is from the east. The next two digits is the wind speed in knots (hence KT). Two knots is roughly one m/s. So 04005KT is roughly 2.5 m/s wind from the northeast. Sometimes you’ll see a G which refers to gusts, so 27020G30KT means 10 m/s gusting to 15 m/s from the west.

The next four digits refer to visibility in meters. 5000 means 5 km visibility. 9999 is typically used for visibility unlimited or at least 10 km.

Then there is the weather type, precipitation, etc. A minus (-) means light while plus is heavy. There are a huge number of codes. Just a few, SH showers, SN snow, FG fog, DZ drizzle, TS thunderstorms, BR mist, RA rain, and many more.

The next zero to many describe the layers of clouds. Scattered, broken, overcast, etc followed by the number of hundreds of feet. Why we mix metric with imperial, I have only guesses. OVC035 means overcast layer of clouds at 3500 feet.

The next numbers refer to the the temperature. The M means minus (below freezing). After the slash is the dew point, the temperature at which precipitation should be expected, or at least 100% relative humidity.

The number with a Q is the barometric pressure in millibar (mbs).

Sexy sexy made up of plexi disasters
Pushing and pulling conservative rolling
Unlike plastic, easier to see through
Just like glass with no ring
Softer and sadder you sing
Sexy sexy do your thing
Learn to be shy and then you can sting
Plexi, plexi bend don’t shatter
Once your broken shape won’t matter

Your breaking your mind
By killing the time that kills you
But you can’t blame the time
When its only in your mind

Quickly quickly grow and then you’ll know
It is such and awkward show to see
And everyone you wanted to know
And everyone you wanted to meet
Have all gone away
Well they’ve all gone away

And now you’re
Breaking your mind
By killing the time that kills you
But you cant blame the time
When its only in your mind

I dag er det Alexs fødselsdag,
hurra hurra hurra,
han sikkert sig en gave får,
som han har ønsket sig i år,
med dejlig chokolade og kager til.

Hvor smiler han, hvor er han glad,
hurra hurra hurra,
men denne dag er også rar,
for hjemme venter mor og far
med dejlig chokolade og kager til.

Og når han hjem fra skole går,
hurra hurra hurra,
så skal han hjem og holde fest
og hvem der kommer med som gæst
får dejlig chokolade og kager til.

Til slut vi råber højt i kor,
hurra hurra hurra,
gid Alex længe leve må,
og sine ønsker opfyldt få,
og dejlig chokolade og kager til.

mp3
mp3

(hover over for English translations)

• København K
• Christianshavn, Amager
• Østerbro
• Nørrebro
• Vesterbro
• Frederiksberg