User Guide

The complete WX Aviation Weather user guide — the same content you find in the app under Settings → User Guide, or behind the ? button on many screens. Looking for quick answers? See Support & FAQ.

Basics: Getting started · Flight categories and personal minimums · Weather Alerts · Location tab · Info tab · Nearby tab · Route briefing

Weather and map: Reading the METAR page · TAF and the timeline · METAR plot legend · The map and its layers

NOTAM: Reading NOTAMs · NOTAM timeline · NOTAM abbreviations

Glossary: Sky cover and cloud codes · Present weather codes · TAF and report codes

Data and safety: Where the data comes from

Basics

Getting started

Find an airport, save it as a favourite, open its details.

Tap the search field and type an ICAO or IATA code, or part of the airport or city name.
Add the airport to your favourites with the star. Favourites are always at hand on the main screen, and they are what the widgets and the Watch app show. The widgets and the Watch complication stay readable in tinted and clear styles too: there, the category appears as an outlined badge with its name.
Tap the airport to open its details: weather, NOTAM, location, airport info and nearby airports are on separate tabs.
Put the airports of a planned route into a group; the group screen shows the weather of every station side by side, and a briefing report can be generated from it.

💡 Tip: Set your units, time format and appearance once in Settings — they apply everywhere in the app, including the reports and the widgets.

Flight categories and personal minimums

What the VFR, MVFR, IFR and LIFR colours mean, and how to set your own limits.

The colour of an airport or a station shows its flight category. The category is derived automatically from the ceiling and the prevailing visibility, using the standard thresholds. Each category has the same colour everywhere — on the map, the badges, the timelines, the widgets, Apple Watch and the reports — always with white text. With Increase Contrast switched on, the shades are darker.

VFR	Ceiling above 3000 ft and visibility more than 5 SM.
MVFR	Ceiling 1000–3000 ft and/or visibility 3–5 SM.
IFR	Ceiling 500–1000 ft and/or visibility 1–3 SM.
LIFR	Ceiling below 500 ft and/or visibility less than 1 SM.

Personal minimums are your own ceiling, visibility and crosswind limits. Once set, the app marks every period that falls below them — independently of the official category.

When enabled, timeline segments below your ceiling or visibility minimums are marked with a thin red stripe.

⚠️ Important: The flight category is an automatic classification from two values. It knows nothing about terrain, icing, NOTAMs, the rules that apply to you or the capability of your aircraft.

Weather Alerts

Push notifications when the weather or the NOTAMs change at your airports.

Weather Alerts watch your airports on the server and send a notification when something changes — you do not need to keep the app open. The feature is part of the Premium subscription.

Open Settings → Premium → Weather Alerts. On an airport’s details, the bell next to the star does the same for that one airport: it switches monitoring on or off, and adds the airport to your favourites if needed.
Under Alert triggers, choose what you want to be told about. The triggers apply to every monitored airport.
Under Monitored airports, switch on the favourites you want to watch, and allow notifications when iOS asks.
Tap Send a test notification. If it arrives within a few seconds, delivery works on this device.

Flight category: the category of the airport changes, in either direction. Personal minimums: the ceiling or visibility falls below the values set under Personal minimums. Crosswind: the crosswind on the best runway exceeds your maximum crosswind — this needs runway data for the airport. TAF: the forecast drops below your minimums within the next 12 hours. NOTAM: runway closures and ILS, lighting or navaid outages — the details are in the NOTAM article.

The server checks the new reports every five minutes. A notification is sent when a condition begins — not again while it lasts. A worsening flight category is reported at once; an improvement only once it has held for about 30 minutes, so a ceiling hovering at a boundary does not notify you back and forth. If several things change at once, they arrive together in one notification, and an airport gets at most one weather notification in about 20 minutes. NOTAM notifications are sent separately and are not held back by these limits.

Recent Alerts lists everything that happened at your monitored airports in the last 72 hours — including changes that did not arrive as a notification because of the 20-minute limit, or that you dismissed. Open it with the clock button at the top of Favorites, or from the Weather Alerts settings. Times are in UTC. An alert that was later overtaken is dimmed and marked “Changed later”, and the newest one shows the airport’s current category. Tap an alert to open the airport — a NOTAM alert opens at that NOTAM.

Weather alerts need a current METAR. If an airport does not publish one, its row in Monitored airports shows an orange note: there, only NOTAM alerts can work. For such an airport, monitor a nearby station that does report.

To send notifications, the server stores your monitored airports, your triggers and limits, and a notification token for this device. Delete my alert data at the bottom of the screen removes all of this from the server.

⚠️ Important: Weather Alerts are for situational awareness only and are not a substitute for an official weather briefing. Always obtain an official briefing before every flight.

Location tab

Coordinates, distance, elevation, local time and sunrise/sunset

At the top of the tab are the latitude and longitude of the airport reference point (ARP). Tap the card to copy the coordinates to the clipboard or open them in the Maps app. Below, the airport is also shown on a map, with a map/satellite toggle.

The “From your location” card shows the distance and bearing from the device’s current position to the airport. It only appears when location access is granted and a valid position is available.

Next to the elevation, the method is given in brackets: surveyed or estimated — the latter can be off by tens of feet. The magnetic variation is computed for today’s date; it explains the difference between the runway designator and the true direction.

The local time is shown in the airport’s time zone, with the authoritative UTC beside it. The time-zone identifier and the UTC offset are also shown — with daylight saving, the offset changes during the year.

Sunrise and sunset appear on two rows: the official time is when the sun’s disc meets the horizon, while civil twilight is the longer window during which natural light is still usable. Many countries define VFR night relative to civil twilight, so plan against that rather than official sunset. The display can be switched between UTC and local time.

Related: Info tab, Nearby tab · Back to contents

Info tab

Airport status, frequencies, navaids and services

At the top of the tab are the airport’s status (open or closed), its type (large, medium or small airport, heliport, gliderport, ultralight field and so on) and whether it is towered. At a non-towered airport you give and receive traffic information on the radio yourself.

The frequency list shows the type of service (TWR, GND, ATIS, AFIS and so on) together with its description. The list comes from a database, so verify the actual frequency against the current AIP or the NOTAMs before departure.

The navaids section lists the facilities belonging to or near the airport (VOR, DME, NDB, ILS) with their identifiers and frequencies. An outage is published by NOTAM — look for it on the NOTAM tab.

Where the database provides it, the available fuel grades and the owner’s and manager’s contact details are shown. Tapping a phone number dials it directly — at a small airfield this is the fastest way to obtain prior permission (PPR).

⚠️ Important: The data on this tab comes from a STATIC database and only changes with database updates. The day’s actual state — closures, frequency changes, unserviceable facilities — is published by NOTAM, and a NOTAM always overrides what you see here.

Nearby tab

Finding and filtering nearby airports — for a diversion or an alternate

The list shows the surrounding airports, each with the distance and the bearing from the airport you are currently viewing — not from your own position. Each row also shows the longest runway, the current wind and the age of the observation. In the Now view, a row also shows whether the current METAR meets your personal minimums, or which value is below them; with no METAR or an old one it says nothing. An airport opened from this list opens on its Weather tab and has no Nearby tab of its own, so the comparison always stays relative to the airport you started from.

The radius is adjustable, so the search circle can be narrowed or widened. The METAR-only toggle hides airports that have no weather report — usually essential when planning a diversion. The “Above minimums only” toggle keeps those whose current METAR meets your personal minimums — ceiling, visibility and crosswind on the best runway.

Sorting works three ways: by distance, by flight category or by runway length. Sorting by runway length helps when your aircraft’s performance drives the choice; sorting by category helps when the weather does.

At the bottom of the list you can see how many of the matches are shown — with a large radius the display is limited to keep the tab fast. If the airport you want is missing, narrow the radius or apply a filter.

💡 Tip: When choosing a diversion, this list is only the first filter — open the airport you have in mind and check its NOTAM tab for runway closures or unserviceable facilities. An airport with a good category but a closed runway is not an alternate.

Switch the selector at the top to “At arrival” (Premium) and set your ETA. Every nearby airport’s TAF is then evaluated for ETA ±1 hour against your personal minimums: ceiling, visibility and crosswind on the best open runway, plus the minimum runway length. TEMPO and PROB groups below minimums are listed separately as “Suitable, except TEMPO/PROB”. For the best candidates it also checks NOTAMs for runway closures; airports without a TAF are not assessed.

Route briefing

Saved routes with a go/no-go briefing for departure, destination and alternate — and possible departure windows.

The Briefing tab has two parts. Routes are the flights you fly often — departure, optional waypoints, destination, an optional alternate and your aircraft’s cruise speed and altitude. Groups are your airport lists for an area, with a multi-airport report.

Add a route with the + button. The airport picker suggests nearby airports, your favorites and recent ones — or tap Map to pick one. Swipe right on a saved route to create the return flight.
Tap a route to open its briefing.
Set your departure time (ETD); the flight time and ETA follow from your cruise speed and the forecast winds.
Read the verdict at the top, then the cards in flight order: departure, en route, destination, alternate and arrival.

Each airport is checked for its own time — departure at ETD ±1 hour, destination at ETA ±1 hour, the alternate after the extra leg — against your personal minimums, the crosswind on the best open runway and runway-closing NOTAMs. NO-GO means the departure or the destination fails. CAUTION means something needs your attention: a TEMPO/PROB group, a missing TAF, an unconfirmed NOTAM check, an unsuitable alternate, or a SIGMET/AIRMET or severe PIREP along the route.

No alternate yet, or the one you set is not suitable? Tap Find an Alternate: the nearby airports open in arrival mode, assessed for your ETA. Tap Set as Alternate on a suitable one and the briefing updates at once.

Real routes rarely run straight. In the route editor, add up to 10 waypoints under Waypoints: search for a navaid or an airport, or tap Map — navaids show with their chart symbol (VOR hexagon, NDB dotted circle, DME square), and the crosshair lets you pick any point, such as a VFR reporting point. Reorder them from the row’s menu. Distance, wind, flight time and the en-route hazards follow the waypoints; the return flight reverses them.

En route, the briefing lists SIGMETs and AIRMETs within 10 NM of the route (through your waypoints) that are valid during the flight and start below your cruise altitude, and hazard PIREPs within 25 NM (PIREPs are only available over the US and the North Atlantic). Ground speed comes from the forecast winds at the flight level closest to your cruise altitude, leg by leg; climb and descent are not included.

The route map under the summary shows the route through your waypoints and the leg to the alternate (dashed). Each airport carries its role — DEP, DEST, ALTN — and a badge with its verdict: check mark suitable, exclamation mark conditional, cross not suitable. Only the SIGMETs, AIRMETs and PIREPs the briefing found along the route are drawn. Tap the map to open it full screen; tap any item for details, and see the legend in the corner.

The departure window bar runs the same checks for every quarter hour of the next 24 hours: green GO, orange CAUTION, red NO-GO, grey not assessed. Tap the bar to move the ETD there. Every departure time uses the current flight time.

With Weather Alerts, switch on “Notify me when a GO window opens” under the departure window: you get a push when the forecast opens a GO window for the route (and when a window you were notified about closes). Tapping it opens the route’s briefing. The push only covers the weather — NOTAMs and en-route hazards are in the briefing.

Save a briefing with Save Briefing: it is kept on the device with its time stamp and the raw METAR, TAF and NOTAM texts, so you can read it offline — up to 20 per route, under Saved briefings. Export briefing creates a PDF or text report with a briefing cover page in front of the airport pages, ready to share.

One saved route, the route map and the current flight categories are free; the go/no-go briefing, the departure window, saving and exporting briefings are part of Premium.

⚠️ Important: Planning aid based on TAF forecasts. The NOTAM check covers runway closures only. It does not replace an official briefing.

Weather and map

Reading the METAR page

Raw, decoded and plain-language view, the age of the observation, the trend and the recommended runway.

A METAR is an observation, not a forecast: what the station actually measured, usually every 30 or 60 minutes.

The same report is available in three forms: raw, decoded and plain language. You can switch between them on the page, and choose which one opens first in Settings.

The observation time is always shown next to the report. If the observation is older than the limit you set, the app marks it as stale: the time turns orange with a ⚠ sign — an old METAR may describe a very different situation from the current one.

The trend chart compares the last few hours of observations, so you can see whether the ceiling, the visibility and the wind are improving or deteriorating.

At the top of the page, below the METAR, a row shows the runway recommended for the current (METAR) wind, with its headwind (↓) and crosswind (⇄) components. The row turns red if the crosswind exceeds the limit set in your personal minimums, and if the runway end favoured by the wind is closed by NOTAM, it says so. Tap the row to scroll to the Runways card, where you can also step through the TAF periods; the map button at the end of the row opens the airport diagram in one tap (the diagram data is downloaded the first time). The recommendation is for information only — the runway in use is set by the tower or the ATIS. In the Runways card, the crosswind timeline shows each period’s crosswind in knots: green is comfortably within your limit, amber is getting close to it (from 65% of it), and red reaches or exceeds your maximum crosswind — 20 kt if you have not set one.

On a long page, the “Jump to” button (list icon) at the top of the screen takes you to any section — the list follows your display order and offers only the sections currently shown. Once you have scrolled far down, the arrow button in the bottom-right corner takes you back to the top; tapping the tab you are already on does the same, on every tab.

TAF and the timeline

How a forecast is built up from change groups, and how to read the timeline.

A TAF is a forecast for the vicinity of the aerodrome, usually valid for 24 or 30 hours. It consists of a base forecast plus change groups that modify it for a given period.

The timeline colours every period by its flight category, so you can see at a glance when the weather is expected to deteriorate. Tap a segment for the details of that period. With VoiceOver, each segment is read out with its period and category, and a double tap opens its details.

Verification compares an earlier forecast with what was actually observed. It shows whether the TAF of that station has recently been optimistic, conservative or accurate.

METAR plot legend

The meaning of the station model drawing — the wind barb, the sky cover circle and the values around it — and how the adaptive map symbol builds on it.

The METAR symbol follows the international station model: every value has its own fixed place around the circle. Values are shown in the units you selected in Settings.

Elements

Sky cover and flight category	The circle in the middle: the fill shows how much of the sky is covered, the colour shows the flight category.
Wind	The shaft starting from the circle points to the direction the wind blows from; the barbs give the speed.
Weather	Next to the circle: the WMO symbol of the reported present weather (rain, snow, fog, thunderstorm…).
Missing data	An “M” in a grey circle means the flight category is unknown. Values that are not reported are simply left out of the plot.
Temperature	Top left of the circle (°C / °F).
Dewpoint	Bottom left of the circle, in blue (°C / °F).
Horizontal visibility	Left of the circle (km / SM). Below 3 SM the value turns red.
Ceiling	Right of the circle: the base of the BKN/OVC layer in hundreds (ft / m) — 25 means 2500.
Pressure	Top right of the circle: the last three digits of the altimeter setting — 013 = 1013 hPa, 992 = 29.92 inHg.

Wind barb

North is up: the shaft points to the direction the wind comes from (the examples show a wind from 270°).

Add up the barbs to get the speed: pennants (50 kt), full barbs (10 kt) and half barbs (5 kt).

Calm	Empty circle around the station: calm or variable wind (3 kt or less).
Wind gust	Red barbs show the gust, the dark ones the steady wind — here 25 kt gusting 40 kt.

Sky cover

CLR / SKC	Clear sky — empty circle.
FEW	Few clouds (1/8–2/8) — a line inside the circle.
SCT	Scattered clouds (3/8–4/8) — a quarter of the circle filled.
BKN	Broken clouds (5/8–7/8) — three quarters of the circle filled.
OVC	Overcast (8/8) — the whole circle filled.
OVX	Sky obscured — crossed circle; the ceiling value is then the vertical visibility.

Flight category

VFR	Ceiling above 3000 ft and visibility more than 5 SM.
MVFR	Ceiling 1000–3000 ft and/or visibility 3–5 SM.
IFR	Ceiling 500–1000 ft and/or visibility 1–3 SM.
LIFR	Ceiling below 500 ft and/or visibility less than 1 SM.

On the map

Station identifier	On the map the ICAO/IATA code of the station is drawn below the airport icon or the plot.
Wind Speed	Instead of the plot, a coloured bubble can show only the wind speed: green → orange → purple as the wind gets stronger.
Temperature	A coloured bubble can also show only the temperature: blue (cold) → green → red (warm).

The symbols follow the WMO station model convention used by the NOAA Aviation Weather Center.

The map and its layers

Which layers can be switched on, what a tap or a long press on the map does, and the details of your position.

The map settings are grouped by topic. Map type: Standard, Satellite, Hybrid and so on; the default is Hybrid. Airports: show or hide them, filter by type and set a minimum runway length. Weather: how METAR stations are drawn, and winds aloft. Hazards and reports: AIRMET/SIGMET areas and PIREPs. Only turn on what you actually need — a busy map is hard to read. An airport with a METAR is drawn as a single symbol — its icon, its weather and its code together — so nothing appears twice.

METAR stations can be shown in several ways. Adaptive, the default, adds detail as you zoom in: from afar, the airport icon with a flight category badge; closer, the runway layout, with the station circle in the badge’s place and the wind barb starting from it, so you can compare the wind with the runways at a glance; up close, also the values around the circle and, right of the icon, the ceiling and the present weather symbol. Classic METAR plot shows the full station model at every zoom level, Airport + Category only the icon and the badge, and Wind Speed or Temperature a coloured bubble. When you rotate the map, the runways and the wind barb turn with it, while the text stays upright.

Tap any symbol to open its details. Where several items overlap, a picker lists everything at that point, so nothing stays hidden underneath. Its last row, “Details of this point”, opens the data of the tapped spot itself.

Press and hold anywhere on the map — even on top of a symbol — to drop a pin. The panel of that point shows its coordinates (decimal and degrees-minutes-seconds, ready to copy or share), its position from the nearest airport in reporting format, for example “LHBP 045°M / 12 NM”, its distance and bearing from you, the nearest airports, the magnetic variation, sunrise, sunset and civil twilight, and the local time zone. Closing the panel removes the pin.

The location button at the top right has three states. An outlined arrow means the map is not on your position: tap it to centre the map. A filled arrow means the map is already centred: tap it — or the blue dot — to open My Position, with your coordinates, GPS altitude and accuracy, ground speed and track, magnetic variation, the nearest airport and the sun times. A crossed-out arrow means your position is not available, and a tap explains how to allow location access. Bearings follow your true or magnetic setting.

The radar layer is an animated precipitation image. Its transparency and colour scheme can be changed in the map settings; the frame times are shown above the animation.

NOTAM

Reading NOTAMs

Badges, filters and validity times on the NOTAM tab

The NOTAM tab shows NOTAMs for the airport and the surrounding airspace: the airport’s own NOTAMs, nearby ones found by radius, and FIR-level (en-route and airspace) NOTAMs. Expired and cancelled NOTAMs are not listed.

A red triangle marks a NOTAM that reports a closure or an unserviceable facility (runway closed, ILS or navaid out of service). These are sorted to the top of the list. The marker deliberately does not appear for every “U/S” text: taxiway sign and light failures are not highlighted in red, otherwise a real runway closure would be lost among them.

A green dot means the NOTAM is currently in force. An amber clock shows the time remaining until a NOTAM that has not started yet becomes effective. “Scheduled” means the NOTAM has a daily or weekly schedule, so it may not be in force right now even inside its validity window — read the schedule line in that case.

The line next to the calendar icon is the NOTAM’s original D) schedule, shown unchanged on the card (for example “0500-1700” or “NOV 12-15 1500-2200”). On the timeline, the app draws the actual periods from it when the schedule can be interpreted unambiguously; if it cannot, the bar is striped and you should read this line. Times in a NOTAM are UTC.

The start and end times come from the NOTAM’s structured fields. “PERM” marks a NOTAM valid until further notice. “EST” means the end time is only an estimate: the NOTAM may be cancelled earlier or stay in force longer, so no expiry warning is shown in that case. An hourglass marks a NOTAM expiring within a few hours — not something to plan around.

The line next to the speech-bubble icon is a short English summary of the NOTAM’s ICAO Q-code (for example “Runway closed”). The scope icon shows the distance from the airport reference point and the radius of the affected area — this answers whether the NOTAM affects your flight at all, since FIR-level NOTAMs can lie at the far side of the airspace. The up-down arrow is the NOTAM’s vertical extent.

At the top of the tab, the VFR and IFR chips filter by traffic type and the setting is remembered for the next visit. The “Active” chip hides NOTAMs that are not in force yet; it deliberately starts off on every visit, so that a filter left on cannot hide tomorrow’s runway closure. The category chips (RWY, TWY, NAV and so on) narrow by subject, and the search box matches both the NOTAM number and its text. When you choose “Show in list” on the timeline, a clock chip at the start of the row filters the list to the NOTAMs in force at that time; tap the chip to remove it.

The gear button sets the display format and the sort order. The “Report” format shows the decoded NOTAM text; “Raw” shows the full ICAO block with its Q/A/B/C/D/E lines — useful when you need to pass the NOTAM on verbatim or compare it with an official briefing.

On the Weather tab, the runway cards also flag NOTAMs affecting that runway. A red “Closed by NOTAM” band marks a runway closure — the diagram then shows a yellow X and neither runway end is highlighted as facing the wind, because even the end with the better wind is unusable. An amber “NOTAM restriction” band is not a closure but another critical NOTAM affecting the runway, such as an ILS out of service. The runway recommendation at the top of the page and the airport diagram never recommend a runway end closed by NOTAM either. Always read the details on the NOTAM tab.

With a Weather Alerts subscription you can also get NOTAM notifications for your monitored airports (Alerts settings → NOTAM). A planned runway closure is announced when published, 24 hours before it starts and when it takes effect — and if it is changed or cancelled, you are told that too. An ILS, runway lighting or navaid outage is announced when it takes effect. The notification carries the NOTAM text, so conditions such as “except with PPR” are not lost. Only a closure that is in force or starts within about three hours is sent as time-sensitive, so the 24-hour reminder does not break through a Focus at night. Taxiway closures and minor lighting outages are not pushed. Tapping the notification opens the NOTAM tab at that NOTAM. Notifications are a convenience, not a substitute for the official NOTAM briefing.

⚠️ Important: If “NOTAMs not checked” appears above the runway cards, the NOTAMs could not be downloaded — in that case the absence of a flag does NOT mean there is no runway closure. The NOTAM display in this app is for information only and does not replace an official pre-flight briefing.

NOTAM timeline

NOTAMs, TAF and crosswind on one time axis

The timeline answers the question that matters before a flight: what will affect me at the time I depart or arrive? Each NOTAM is a bar on a common time axis, grouped by category like the chips. Above the bars, the TAF and the crosswind run on the same axis, so a runway closure and a TEMPO in the forecast line up at a glance.

On the NOTAM tab, tap the timeline button next to the settings button. The same button switches back to the list.
Choose a time window at the top: 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours, or 7 days. The axis starts a little before now, so you also see what has just ended. Times follow your UTC or local time setting.
Tap a bar to open the full NOTAM card.

In force — the bar’s colour is the category colour.

Critical NOTAM, such as a closure or an unserviceable facility.

Daily or weekly D) schedule: the faint band is the validity, the solid parts are when the NOTAM is actually in force.

Striped: the schedule could not be interpreted unambiguously — read the schedule line on the NOTAM card.

Fading end: estimated end time (EST); the NOTAM may end earlier or be extended.

Square end: the NOTAM continues beyond the edge of the window (or is permanent, PERM).

Darker band: night, from sunset to sunrise at the airport.

Crosswind on the best open runway at that moment, with the runway and the knots. Striped red “CLSD”: every runway is closed.

NOTAMs that are in force for the entire window and are not critical go into the collapsed “In force for the whole period” group at the bottom: they do not change during your flight. A critical NOTAM — for example a runway closure lasting all day — always stays among the bars.

Tap or drag along the time axis to select a time, such as your planned departure or arrival. Bars that are not in force at that time fade, and the summary shows how many NOTAMs are in force and how many of them are critical. “Show in list” switches to the list filtered to that moment; the clock chip at the start of the list shows the filter, and tapping it removes it. With VoiceOver, swipe up or down on the axis to step the time.

The TAF band shows the forecast flight category with the standard colours; temporary (TEMPO) and probability (PROB) periods appear as a thin band below it. The crosswind band uses the prevailing TAF wind and always picks the runway that is open at that moment and gives the most headwind. When a runway closure starts, the band switches to the other runway and shows the crosswind there. Variable wind (VRB) counts as full crosswind.

⚠️ Important: The timeline is a planning aid, not a replacement for the NOTAM text. Where a schedule or a closure is ambiguous, the app errs on the side of caution: it shows the NOTAM as in force and never recommends a runway whose closure is unclear. Always read the full NOTAM before flight.

NOTAM abbreviations

ICAO codes found in raw NOTAM text

Raw NOTAM text uses ICAO abbreviations. These are the most common ones; the search also matches the code, so you can simply type “U/S”, for example.

`NOTAMN`	New NOTAM, does not amend an earlier one
`NOTAMR`	Replaces an earlier NOTAM; the replaced number appears in the header
`NOTAMC`	Cancels an earlier NOTAM. The app hides these and the cancelled original.
`CLSD`	Closed
`U/S`	Unserviceable, not usable
`AVBL / UNAVBL`	Available / not available
`ACT`	Active, in operation
`WIP`	Work in progress
`LGTD`	Lighted. “NOT LGTD” means unlit.
`OBST`	Obstacle
`PERM`	Permanent, valid until further notice
`EST`	Estimated end time: the NOTAM may be cancelled earlier or stay in force longer
`H24`	Continuously, 24 hours a day
`SR / SS`	Sunrise / sunset — common in the schedule line
`WEF`	With effect from
`AGL`	Above ground level
`AMSL / MSL`	Above mean sea level
`SFC`	Surface, from the ground up
`GND`	Ground level
`UNL`	Unlimited upper limit
`WI`	Within
`BTN`	Between
`ACFT`	Aircraft
`UAS`	Unmanned aircraft system, drone
`ENR`	En-route
`AIP / SUP / AMDT`	Aeronautical Information Publication, its supplement and its amendment

Glossary

Sky cover and cloud codes

SKC, FEW, SCT, BKN, OVC, VV and the other sky cover abbreviations.

`SKC / CLR`	Clear sky — empty circle.
`FEW`	Few clouds (1/8–2/8) — a line inside the circle.
`SCT`	Scattered clouds (3/8–4/8) — a quarter of the circle filled.
`BKN`	Broken clouds (5/8–7/8) — three quarters of the circle filled.
`OVC`	Overcast (8/8) — the whole circle filled.
`VV / OVX`	Sky obscured — crossed circle; the ceiling value is then the vertical visibility.
`NSC`	No significant clouds
`CAVOK`	Ceiling and Visibility are OK
`CB`	cumulonimbus
`TCU`	towering cumulus
`CIG`	The base of the lowest BKN or OVC layer, in feet above the aerodrome. This is the value the flight category is based on, not the lowest cloud.

Present weather codes

The intensity, descriptor and phenomenon parts of a weather group.

A group is read from left to right: intensity, then the descriptor, then the phenomenon itself. For example +TSRA is a heavy thunderstorm with rain, and −FZDZ is light freezing drizzle.

`-`	Light
`+`	Heavy
`VC`	In the vicinity
`MI`	shallow
`BC`	patches
`PR`	partial
`DR`	low drifting
`BL`	blowing
`SH`	showery
`TS`	thunderstorm
`FZ`	freezing
`DZ`	drizzle
`RA`	rain
`SN`	snow
`SG`	snow grains
`IC`	ice crystals
`PL`	ice pellets
`GR`	hail
`GS`	small hail
`UP`	unknown precipitation
`BR`	mist
`FG`	fog
`FU`	smoke
`VA`	volcanic ash
`DU`	dust
`SA`	sand
`HZ`	haze
`PY`	spray
`PO`	Well-developed dust
`SQ`	squalls
`FC`	funnel cloud
`SS`	sandstorm
`DS`	dust storm

TAF and report codes

Change groups and the abbreviations that turn up in METAR and TAF messages.

`BECMG`	A permanent change expected gradually within the given period; from the end of the period the new conditions apply.
`TEMPO`	A temporary fluctuation: each occurrence lasts less than an hour, and in total less than half of the period.
`PROB30 / PROB40`	The probability — 30% or 40% — that the conditions described after it will occur.
`FM`	From this time on, the conditions that follow replace the previous ones completely.
`NSW`	No significant weather: the phenomenon forecast earlier comes to an end.
`WS`	Wind shear: a significant change of wind in the lower layers, given with the altitude and the wind that goes with it.
`P6SM / 9999`	Visibility greater than 6 statute miles. In metric reports 9999 means the same thing: 10 km or more.
`VRB`	Variable wind direction, typically at low wind speeds — the direction cannot be given meaningfully.
`AUTO`	A fully automated observation, without a human check. Some phenomena — for example the cloud type — may be missing from it.
`COR`	A corrected report that replaces an earlier one issued for the same time.
`NOSIG`	No significant change is expected in the two hours following the observation.
`RMK`	Remarks: a national supplement after the standard part of the report, which is not decoded everywhere.
`Z`	Every time in a report is UTC (Zulu). For example 121030Z means the 12th day of the month at 10:30 UTC.
`KT`	Wind speed in knots. Some regions use MPS (metres per second) or KMH instead; the app converts to the unit you have chosen.

Data and safety

Where the data comes from

Sources, refresh, offline behaviour and the limits of the app.

The weather comes from public aviation services, and the airport database from open data sets.

Sources: NOAA Aviation Weather Center · FAA NOTAM API · OurAirports · OpenStreetMap

METAR, TAF and NOTAM are refreshed when you open a page, and in the background as well if automatic update is switched on. You can always pull down to refresh by hand.

The airport, runway, frequency and navaid database is stored on the device, so search and airport data also work without a network. Weather and NOTAM always need a connection; without one you see the last downloaded report, with its observation time.

If something is not loading, the System Status screen in Settings shows whether the problem is with the service, the device or the network. It also shows whether notifications are allowed and how many airports you monitor — the first place to look if an alert does not arrive.

⚠️ Important: This app is for situational awareness. It is not an official briefing source, and it must not be the sole basis of a flight decision. Always obtain an official pre-flight briefing.

Can’t find what you need? Write to us: support@wxaviationweather.com

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