Weather
How to Read a METAR: A Drone Pilot’s Guide
Break aviation weather reports into a predictable sequence and turn every coded group into a practical flight decision.
Key takeaway
Decode every METAR from left to right in the same order: station, time, wind, visibility, weather, clouds, temperature, and pressure.
Use a consistent decoding order
METARs look dense because spaces separate compact groups rather than ordinary words. The order is predictable, which makes practice much easier.
Start with the station and observation time, then move through the operational weather elements without skipping around.
- Station identifier and observation time
- Wind direction, speed, and gusts
- Visibility and present weather
- Cloud cover and ceiling
- Temperature, dew point, and altimeter
Read wind as an operating condition
A wind group such as 18012G19KT means wind from 180 degrees true at 12 knots, gusting to 19 knots.
For a drone pilot, the practical question is whether sustained wind, gust spread, and direction fit the aircraft and operation—not simply whether you can expand the code.
Find the ceiling
Cloud groups use three-letter coverage codes followed by altitude in hundreds of feet AGL. Broken and overcast layers constitute a ceiling; scattered clouds do not.
Watch for multiple layers. The ceiling is the lowest layer reported as broken or overcast, or vertical visibility into an obscuration.
Put this guide into practice.
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