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Metar Understanding

Asked by: 3954 views Instrument Rating, Weather

Hi everyone my question regards the ending and beginning of precipitation as its listed in a metar. My confusion is the following. If a metar is issued at 1500Z and indicated RAB23 and it is now 1535Z does this mean that the precipitation began 23 minutes past the hour it was issued, which would make it 1523Z ? 

Could you give an example with a precipitation ending as well, SNE15.

Thank you!

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2 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Apr 11, 2015

    The METAR can’t predict future weather, so any precipitation reported has to be in the past. If the METAR was issued at 1555z (a more typical time for the report), then RAB23 would have to mean 1523Z. Similarly, RAB58 would have to mean 1458Z, since 1558Z would be in the future.

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  2. Jake on Apr 17, 2015

    METARs are issued every hour +55 minutes or 5 minutes before the top of the hour. So if you see a METAR with RAB23 and the issued time is 1500 then the rain began at 1423. However you mention the current time of 1535 so most likely what is going to happen is a SPECI (updated METAR do to a significant change in the weather) is going to be issued when the rain began, in this case RAB23 or 1523. The same thing could then be concluded about your SNE15 example as well as a wind shift or rapidly rising or descending barometer.

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