How to Get a Weather Briefing Before Flying

Before venturing into the wild blue yonder, pilots need weather briefings to determine if the flying conditions are safe. There are several methods for attaining the current weather and the forecasted conditions at your destination.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Call the local Flight Service Station at 1-800-WXBRIEF and speak with a pilot briefer to get the weather. Many airports provide a phone recording called AWOS, which is weather recording updated hourly. This message provides wind direction and speed, visibility, sky conditions describing the various cloud layers, temperature, dewpoint, density altitude and barometric pressure (commonly referred to as altimeter).
2. Go online to the ADDS (Aviation Digital Data Service) site provided by the FAA for a transcribed METAR (Aviation Routine Weather Report) weather briefing. You will learn the current weather for airports all across the country. This also notes the past several hours of weather, so you see a trend.
3. At the ADDS site, enter KDFW to see what the current weather is at DFW international. Or try KLAX for Los Angeles. The raw data is coded for pilots to quickly read. If you click on "Transcribed," you get the same report in plain English. Many airports have a continual weather report that is broadcast on a dedicated radio frequency. This report is referred to as ATIS, or Automated Terminal Information Service.