Meteorology

A good knowledge of current meteorological conditions and of short term forcasts is necessary for accurately planning FS flights under IVAO as well as working as an ATC. Most of the necessary information is provided by METAR (METeorological Aviation Report, Aviation Routine Weather report) and TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forcast).

1 METARs and TAFs

METARs and TAFs are codified observation and forcast messages ; several sites and documents explain more or less extensively the meaning of the METAR and TAF codes ; you will familiarize with decoding US METAR, SPECI and TAF messages by reading the IVAO Academy.METAR - (Short) TAF: Aviation Weather Reports.

Météo France Forecast France :

 Online current METARs and TAFs are available (French only).
 Documents explain more or less extensively the meaning of the METAR (french only)
 Un decoding (French only) METARs ands TAF.

FAA web site :

 Surface Weather Observing published by the FAA. you will familiarize with decoding US METAR.

Decoding METAR :

A more in depth knowledge of aviation weather requires more than decoding METAR, TAF and SPECI :

 Ephémeride (French only)
 Nav2000 (French only)

2 Online current METARs and TAFs

Online current METARs and TAFs are available on numerous web sites:

 IVAO provides its own Weather Hunter, a utility that allows you to look for a specific weather pattern on the IVAO network and to find met stations according to selected criteria
 Other meteorological web sites give access to current METARs and TAF, among which the NOAA (National Oceanic and Athmospheric Administration) Internet Weather Source that covers the entire world and the European Aviation Weather Center
 A few web sites provide updated radar images such asThe National Weather Service (North America) and Meteox (West European countries)

3 Knowledge of aviation weather

 A more in depth knowledge of aviation weather requires more than decoding METAR, TAF and SPECI ; therefore we recommend that: You refer to the advanced chapter of the Academy IVAO that covers the subject (Meteorological conditions)
 You read the AWARE manual published by the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)
 Or some other aviation weather tutorials: France Weather web site (french only), Météolaflèche (french only).