METAR decoder

Richard

Richard

Final Approach
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Ack...city life
241530Z 00000KT 6SM -SN BR BKN024 BKN042 OVC055 01/00 A2997 RMK AO2 UPB05E07SNE1455B07 P0000


In bold, what is it?
 
unknown precipitation began at 5 after the hour, ended at 7 after. snow ended 1455Z and began again at 7 after the hour
 
Thanks for the quick reply, Tony!

Next question; would any part of that (only the part in bold) indicate it was an human observer augmenting the auto?
 
Richard said:
Thanks for the quick reply, Tony!

Next question; would any part of that (only the part in bold) indicate it was an human observer augmenting the auto?
Click to expand...

What makes you think it's an auto report?
 
Thanks, Scott. I purposely left the aprt ID off in my original post. I am pretty sure there was no SPECI code prior to the indentifier when I looked at the METAR on the ADDs page. I am impressed.
 
This has also been a reminder to check the time of issuance. A METAR issued half past the hour should be a heads up that this probably is a SPECI.
 
flav8r said:
Here's a helpful decoder I keep in my phone.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/metar_decode_key.pdf
Click to expand...

So I'm trying to find it here, but I distinctly remember "GR" being "ice pellets" many years ago. Did they change it, or did I memorize it wrong. I always liked that it was based off of the German word, "Graupel", since "Graupel snow" is a very specific kind of precipitation, and basing the dang code off of it should mean that's what it *is*, but nooo...

Looking on this doc, it's now very specifically "Hail", and "PL" seems to have been added from what I remember long long ago.

And from another doc...

"The METAR reporting code for hail 5 millimetres (0.20 in) or greater in diameter is GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS."

Yeah, that makes sense. FACEPALM. I'd like to slap whoever did that.

Here's what Graupel looks like... and it's now apparently "GS" in a METAR... instead of "GR" it's namesake... :rolleyes2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graupel

Oh well. Doesn't matter much anyway -- I've always loved the ridiculousness of having GS, GR, PL, IC... and then SN, and SG.

I'm a weather geek and can appreciate the desire to have all of those as they can mean drastically different things are happening aloft... but I sincerely wonder how many official observers out there actually have ever used all six of those.

And of course, automated stations can't possibly figure out all of those types of frozen ice falling from the sky so the overall number of times you'll see all of those used is... virtually nil.

Seems like the list of METAR codes for "frozen ice falling from sky" is just a tad "over-engineered". Perhaps four of those are necessary, but not all six.
 
Blimey. I coulda downed a beer in the time it took for you to issue that SPECI lament. Speaking of which, that is some fine banter for sitting at the outdoor patio sucking down a cold one.
 
scottd said:
Well, PL (ice pellets or colloquially sleet) used to be PE. With ice pellets, it is common to also have other forms of precipitation mixed in. They decided to change PE to PL since when rain and ice pellets were falling, the surface observation would spell out RAPE (for rain and ice pellets). That was not seen as politically correct.
Click to expand...

Huh. Who knew?!

scottd said:
Here's a bit of trivia...to tell the difference between rain and drizzle, look at a puddle of water. Drizzle won't disturb the puddle...rain will.
Click to expand...

Very cool. I love that kind of stuff.

Well that and saying "Grauuuuuupel" in my best goofy German accent. ;)
 
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