METARs typically contain information about the temperature, dewpoint, wind, precipitation, cloud cover, cloud base heights, visibility, and barometric pressure at an airport or observation station. They can also contain information on precipitation amounts, lightning, and other critical data. METARs reflect hourly observations; non-routine updates include the code “SPECI” in the report. METARs are shown as colored flags at airports which have a requested METAR available.

TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts) are weather predictions for specific airports within a 24-hour period, and may span up to 36 hours. TAFs typically include forecast wind, visibility, weather phenomena, and sky conditions using METAR codes.

The graphical METAR flag color shown on the maps is determined by the information within the METAR. The system displays a gray METAR flag when the Datalink Weather service was unable to categorize the METAR.

Textual METAR/TAF information is available on the ‘Waypoint Info’ on the ‘Map,’ ‘Datalink Weather,’ or PFW Navigation or Datalink Weather for airports with a requested METAR available. This textual METAR/ TAF information may come from any data link weather source available to the system (such as SiriusXM, or Garmin Connext), if more than one source is installed. In this case, the system automatically displays the newest available METAR. If the METAR age is identical from all available data link sources, the system selects one METAR to display in the following order of source priority: SiriusXM, FIS-B, and Garmin Connext.

The textual display of METAR information on the ‘Waypoint Info’ shows the decoded text. Note the original METAR text may contain additional information not present in the decoded version. The TAF, if available for the selected airport, appears below the decoded METAR text.