What does this mean?
METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers.
Raw METAR is highly standardized, which enables it to be understood throughout most of the world.
A quick guide to interpreting WXMickleton's METAR reports:
The first element in the METAR is the station code. As Mickleton does not have an official aerodrome code, this is replaced by '////'. The 'AUTO' simply means the observations were automatically generated with no human input.
The next element is the time of the report. The format is ddhhmm[Z], where d is the day of the month, h and m are the hour and minute respectively. All times are in UTC [Z or Zulu time], regardless of the local timezone.
The next element is wind observations. The direction of wind flow is stated in degrees, which make up the first 3 didgits of the element. The last two didgits are the sustained wind speeds (not gusts!) in knots; sometimes gusts will be specified in the format GX[KT].
The next element may be the observed weather condition. If there is no significant weather, the next element will instead be the cloud coverage, described below. Typical weather codes include 'RA', which refers to rain, and 'SHRA', which refers to showers of rain.
The next element is cloud cover information. NCD means no clouds have been detected by the automatic sensors or algorithm - users should note that AUTO reports are not infallible with regard to cloud coverage.
-> The first 3 letters refer to the cloud coverage/amount: FEW means up to 2/8 inclusive of the sky is covered by clouds, SCT means from 2/8 to 4/8 inclusive of the sky is covered, BKN means from 5/8 TO 7/8 inclusive of the sky is covered, and OVC means total cloud coverage.
-> The next 3 didgits refer to the height of the cloud base, in hundredths of feet. For example 008 would mean clouds at a base of 800ft, and 016 would mean clouds at a base of 1,600ft, and 100 would mean clouds at a base of 10,000ft.
-> The last characters refer to the cloud type. A list of cloud type abbreviations can be found on the WMO's cloud atlas. Usually, only a couple of types of cloud genus are reported in real METAR, but WXMickleton has the ability to report all cloud genuses with generally sufficient accuracy, if applicable.
The next element is simply the 2m temperature and dew point in the form temp/dew. Always reported in degrees celsius.
The final element is the mean sea level pressure. Always reported in millibars o.e. hectopascals.
Users should note that any variable unable to be accurately observed by the algorithm shall be replaced by slashes ('///').
Users should also note that any content following 'RMK' is a special remark and not part of any element described above.