Aviation Weather Services

Explanation: one weather phenomenon encountered. A PIREP is normally Routine METAR for Gregg County Airport for the 16th transmitted as an individual report but may be appended to day of the month at 1753Z automated source. Winds are a surface report. Pilot reports are easily decoded, and most 140 at 21 knots gusting to 26. Visibility is ¾ statute mile. contractions used in the reports are self-explanatory. Thunderstorms with heavy rain and mist. Ceiling is broken at 800 feet, overcast at 1,200 feet with cumulonimbus clouds. Example: Temperature 18 °C and dew point 17 °C. Barometric pressure UA/OV GGG 090025/TM 1450/FL 060/TP C182/SK is 29.70 "Hg and falling rapidly. 080 OVC/WX FV04SM RA/TA 05/WV 270030KT/TB LGT/RM HVY RAIN Pilot Weather Reports (PIREPs) PIREPs provide valuable information regarding the Explanation: conditions as they actually exist in the air, which cannot be Type: .................................Routine pilot report gathered from any other source. Pilots can confirm the height Location: .......................... 25 NM out on the 090° radial, of bases and tops of clouds, locations of wind shear and Gregg County VOR turbulence, and the location of inflight icing. If the ceiling is Time: ................................ 1450 Zulu below 5,000 feet, or visibility is at or below five miles, ATC Altitude or Flight Level: 6,000 feet facilities are required to solicit PIREPs from pilots in the area. Aircraft Type: ................... Cessna 182 When unexpected weather conditions are encountered, pilots Sky Cover: ........................ 8,000 overcast are encouraged to make a report to a FSS or ATC. When a Visibility/Weather: ........... 4 miles in rain pilot weather report is filed, the ATC facility or FSS adds it Temperature: .....................5 °Celsius to the distribution system to brief other pilots and provide Wind: ................................ 270° at 30 knots inflight advisories. Turbulence: .......................Light Icing: ................................ None reported PIREPs are easy to file and a standard reporting form outlines Remarks: .......................... Rain is heavy the manner in which they should be filed. Figure 13-7 shows the elements of a PIREP form. Item numbers 1 through 5 are required information when making a report, as well as at least Encoding Pilot Weather Reports (PIREPS) 1 XXX 3-letter station identifier Nearest weather reporting location to the reported phenomenon 2 UA Routine PIREP, UUA-Urgent PIREP. 3 /OV Location Use 3-letter NAVAID idents only. a. Fix: /OV ABC, /OV ABC 090025. b. Fix: /OV ABC 045020-DEF, /OV ABC-DEF-GHI 4 /TM Time 4 digits in UTC: /TM 0915. 5 /FL Altitude/flight level 3 digits for hundreds of feet. If not known, use UNKN: /FL095, /FL310, /FLUNKN. 6 /TP Type aircraft 4 digits maximum. If not known, use UNKN: /TP L329, /TP B727, /TP UNKN. 7 /SK Sky cover/cloud layers Describe as follows: a. Height of cloud base in hundreds of feet. If unknown, use UNKN. b. Cloud cover symbol. c. Height of cloud tops in hundreds of feet. 8 /WX Weather Flight visibility reported first: Use standard weather symbols: /WX FV02SM RA HZ, /WX FV01SM TSRA. 9 /TA Air temperature in celsius (C) If below zero, prefix with a hyphen: /TA 15, /TA M06. 10 /WV Wind Direction in degrees magnetic north and speed in six digits: /WV270045KT, WV 280110KT. 11 /TB Turbulence Use standard contractions for intensity and type (use CAT or CHOP when appropriate). Include altitude only if different from /FL, /TB EXTRM, /TB LGT-MOD BLO 090. 12 /IC Icing Describe using standard intensity and type contractions. Include altitude only if different than /FL: /IC LGT-MOD RIME, /IC SEV CLR 028-045. 13 /RM Remarks Use free form to clarify the report and type hazardous elements first: /RM LLWS -15KT SFC-030 DURC RY22 JFK. Figure 13-7. PIREP encoding and decoding. 13-8