EN  ·  DE

Understanding aviation weather

Aviation weather arrives in heavily condensed codes. Reading them yourself, rather than having them translated for you, makes it quicker to see what a report actually means for your own flight. This section explains the reports used daily across Europe.

The structure of these reports is laid down in law across Europe: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373 prescribes which elements a report contains, the order they appear in, and the increments values are rounded to. That is why a METAR from Dortmund looks exactly like one from Porto.

The reports at a glance

• METAR
  Answers: What is the weather at an aerodrome right now? · Time reference: Observation, issued at regular intervals
• TAF
  Answers: What will the weather at an aerodrome become? · Time reference: Forecast covering 9, 24 or 30 hours
• SIGMET
  Answers: What hazardous phenomena are there en route? · Time reference: Valid for no more than 4 hours
• SNOWTAM
  Answers: What is the condition of the runway surface? · Time reference: Valid for no more than 8 hours

Where to start

• Start with METAR – most of the other reports use the same abbreviations for weather and cloud.
• Then TAF, because the change groups TEMPO, BECMG and PROB appear there for the first time.
• SIGMET and SNOWTAM after that – they come up less often, but when they do they matter most.
• Alongside those: QNH and altimeter setting and thunderstorms and CB.

What a website does not replace
An explanatory page is not a weather briefing. For an actual flight, what counts is current information from an official source — in Germany the aviation weather service of the Deutscher Wetterdienst, the national meteorological service — together with the AIP and NOTAM.

Official sources

• European Commission / EASA: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373 (Annex V "Part-MET", Annex VI "Part-AIS") – Consolidated version 02017R0373-20250501. Open source (retrieved 2026-09-13)
• Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), the German national meteorological service: The DWD aviation weather service – advice and self-briefing (German site) – continuously updated. Open source (retrieved 2026-09-13)

Related reading

• Reading a METAR
• Reading a TAF
• Airspace classes in Germany

Status of this page
An editorial overview for training purposes. The binding references are the applicable regulations, the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP), NOTAM, the approved aircraft documentation and the publications of the competent authorities. NorthTrack is not an authority, an examining body or a flight training organisation.
Page current as of: 2026-09-13