The METARS lies...

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
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I made a flight this morning, as usual I checked all my regional METARs stations that I use as tell-tales for the weather conditions... several times before even driving to the field. Sky Clear they said- all of 'em. I saw the clouds above the airport but with everything announcing "sky clear" for the past few hours and that being so consistent I assumed it just just some small area.

Sky clear all over the region turned out to be more like scattered-broke between 1500 and 3000.... and some higher up overcast layer I couldn't guess the height of while dodging the other crap.... for some 70nm or so...

What floors me isn't that one station was wrong, I've seen that happen before but so many and so consistently? Wow. I guess have faith in nothing with the weather.
 
One of our local FSS guys, we still have on field FSS in Alaska, will call the weather.... "better than 5000 and 5.." on the ATIS.

We need 10,000 to stay within gliding distance of shore while crossing the channel, so that really doesn't help us much.
 
With weather, as in life, the only constant is change. Especially this time of the year.
 
cowman said:
What floors me isn't that one station was wrong, I've seen that happen before but so many and so consistently? Wow. I guess have faith in nothing with the weather.
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Ummm its weather....kinda a dynamically changing thing....even the best weather guessing gets it wrong most of the time. Mark1 eyeballs if VFR...and If You have ur IFR cert....when the sky gives ya clouds...you make cloudnaide!!!and log it.

What floors me is your statement.:eek:
 
cowman said:
I made a flight this morning, as usual I checked all my regional METARs stations that I use as tell-tales for the weather conditions... several times before even driving to the field. Sky Clear they said- all of 'em. I saw the clouds above the airport but with everything announcing "sky clear" for the past few hours and that being so consistent I assumed it just just some small area.

Sky clear all over the region turned out to be more like scattered-broke between 1500 and 3000.... and some higher up overcast layer I couldn't guess the height of while dodging the other crap.... for some 70nm or so...

What floors me isn't that one station was wrong, I've seen that happen before but so many and so consistently? Wow. I guess have faith in nothing with the weather.
Click to expand...

The cloud sensor isn't perfect. If it shoots up a hole in the clouds it only sees clear sky and reports as such. If it's a towered field ideally they would manually edit the METAR, but don't bank on it.
 
Yeah as I said, I've seen it happen before temporarily with one station. This was just the first time I've seen all the stations in an area be like that for a long period of time and to that degree.

Watching those stations over an hour or two before driving out usually gives me a pretty darn close picture of area conditions. Kind of a stark thing to see that picture be so far off- I don't know about you guys but these little stations are usually the biggest factor in deciding to go or not go most days.
 
Ours consistently shows wind at 7kt while the wind sock is straight out and surrounding airports show 20kt gusts!
 
Mike5250 said:
Ours consistently shows wind at 7kt while the wind sock is straight out and surrounding airports show 20kt gusts!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have a similar problem regularly in Mexico. When they have told me winds are calm that can mean anything from a 5 kts tail wind to 15 kts gusts...

 
Had similar this past weekend. The device is reporting clear below [some altitude]. At my local field that's 12,000'. At times it was also reporting scattered at 1,500. From the ground, it was difficult to distinguish the layers by eye. But easy enough to dodge the clouds once on the air.
 
Never trust the METAR. On Saturday the field was reporting 10 miles vis and ovc at 3200. Visibility was correct but the clouds were overcast at 900ft
 
Great Thread. I've learned from experience NEVER to trust the metars, especially in Virginia and W. Virginia. Many times I've flown back IFR at night and found myself in clouds when every station below and around are reporting clear below 12k. Wouldnt be a big deal if I wasn't picking up icing at night! I've found myself doing an ILS to mins and the station is still reporting clear below 12k and 10sm visibility. I've filed multiple safety reports only to get a call back saying I should be contacting the FSDO and not NASA. The only problem is when I contacted the FSDO's they all tell me to file a safety report!

I don't bother with PIREPs anymore, and most pilots I've spoken with don't either. I've had multiple instances where flight service told me I was not experiencing what I reported based on the Metars they saw on the screen. Its a waste of time and I prefer not leaving the frequency. It would be really useful if they could make a way to file a PIREP on foreflight via text. This is just my opinion and I know others will disagree, but I think more people would file PIREPs if they could do it from their ipad and not leave the frequency and deal with trying to reach flight service.
 
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