Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

METAR report

Asked by: 3665 views General Aviation

saw this in a METAR report this morning in the remarks section "RMK CF1SC1CI1".  Any idea what it means?

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

3 Answers



  1. Ernest R Ortner III on Feb 19, 2013

    I’m guessing that is not from a US airport, what was the airport identifier if you don’t mind me asking. I believe that the letters correlate to the type of clouds observed and the following number would tell you the opacity of the clouds. So what it is telling you is that there are cumulus fractus covering 1/8, stratocumulus covering 1/8, and cirrus covering 1/8.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Bill Trussell on Feb 19, 2013

    OK so it took a while to find a somewhat definitive source for this information but Ernest is on the trail. See http://wxqa.com/archive/obsman.pdf Page 35 and table 9-1 of the document for the cloud type designations. The assumption of opacity in 1/8 increments is correct. The construction of the coding described on page 38 is outdated but the only difference is the type designation is given before the opacity figure in 1/8th increments. Also, each layer is given from lowest to highest.

    I found this mostly in Canadian observations and given that the data is in the remarks section it is intended for automatic consumption by weather models but it is useful for humans when you know how to read it. I will not be reading it by the way. It made my head hurt just looking for this information.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. perlgerl on Feb 22, 2013

    Ernest is correct. I use Environment Canada’s Manual of Surface Weather Observations to decode METARs. It is consistent with the World Meteorological Organization, so should be good for decoding any METAR anywhere

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.