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What is METAR search?

It's a website that allows you to find airports with given weather conditions.

Typically, you'd look for weather at a given airport, there are many websites that allow it. Here, while that is also possible, the main way to use the site is the opposite - you look for airports with a certain weather. For example, you can find at which British airports it's currently raining.

DO NOT, by any chance, use this website for real flight or navigation! It is meant to be used for virtual flight simulation only. Data provided here is not guaranteed to be accurate.

How to use the search box?

There are five main types of things you can write in the search box:

• various METAR parts (e.g. "BKN"),
• special keywords based on METAR, like rain or fog,
• numeric data constraints (e.g. cloud-base:200:400, which means cloud base between 200 and 400 ft AGL),
• names (or their parts) of airports, countries, continents, regions, cities, airport ICAO codes etc.
• flight rule names, e.g. IFR.

For numeric constraints you can define minimum value, maximum value or exact value. The syntax is constraint-name:min-value:max-value or constraint-name:exact-value. Additionally, min or max value cen be left out as empty.

For example:

• wind:10 means wind blowing at exactly 10 kt;
• wind:10:20 means wind blowing at between 10 and 20 kt;
• wind::20 means wind blowing at up to 20 kt;
• wind:10: means wind blowing at 10 kt or more.

All available keywords and constraints are listed below. You can combine them in any order. The search results will fulfill all the conditions.

METAR parts and keywords

• BC or patches
• BL or blowing
• BR or mist
• DR or low drifting
• DS or dust storm
• DU or widespread dust
• DZ or drizzle
• FG or fog
• FC or funnel cloud
• FU or smoke
• FZ or freezing
• GR or hail
• GS or small hail
• HZ or haze
• IC or ice crystals
• MI or shallow
• PL or ice pellets
• PO or dust devils
• RA or rain
• SA or sand
• SG or snow grains
• SH or shower
• SN or snow
• SQ or squall
• SS or sandstorm
• TS or thunderstorm
• VA or volcanic ash
• VC or in the vicinity
• UP or unidentified precipitation
• RE or recent
• PR or partial
• FEW or few
• SCT or scattered
• BKN or broken
• OVC or overcast
• NSC or no significant cloud
• CAVOK or CAVOK
• CLR or clear
• heavy
• slight
• light
• storm
• thunder
• storm
• sand
• tornado

Other keywords

• Country names or their parts, e.g. Poland or Britain,
• Airport names or their parts, e.g. Heathrow or Kennedy,
• Continent names, e.g. Europe or Asia,
• Region names, e.g. Middle East or Eastern Europe,
• City names, e.g. London or Paris,
• Other location-related names (counties, states etc.),
• Airport ICAO codes, e.g. EPWR,
• ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country codes, e.g. GBR,
• Flight rule names: VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR.

Available numeric constraint keywords

• cloud-base - cloud base AGL
• dew - dew point
• temp - temperature
• visibility - visibility
• vertical-visibility - vertical visibility
• wind - wind speed (excl. gusts)
• runway - runway length

Numerical constraint units

• cloud-base - feet (ft)
• vertical-visibility - feet (ft)
• temp - degrees Celsius (°C)
• dew - degrees Celsius (°C)
• visibility - statute miles (SM)
• wind - knots (kt)
• runway - feet (ft)

In the future it will be possible to use custom units.

More search box examples

• LIFR cloud-base::400 Britain - will look for airports in Britain with LIFR flight rules and cloud base at or below 400 ft AGL;
• wind:20: gusts heavy rain - will look for airports with winds at or above 20 kt, with significant gusts and heavy rain;
• scattered broken - will look for airports with 2 different layers of clouds: scattered and broken;
• wind:15: cloud-base:100:2000 - will look for winds above 15 kt and cloud base between 100 and 2000 ft;
• Britain temp:0: - will look for temperatures above 0 °C in Britain;
• visibility::5 united states - will look for visibility below 5 SM in the United States;
• BR RA - will look for mist and rain (could also be written as mist rain);
• Eastern Europe wind:15: - will look for winds at or above 15 kt in Eastern Europe;
• runway:16000: - will look for aerodromes with at least one runway with length of 16000 ft or more.