how to read weather conditions at noaa.gov?

[Edge17]

I was looking at the hour by hour over here:http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowe...WD&num=168&raw=0&dbn=m

What do things like BKN014 or FEW016 mean?

 

[Eli]

Text

 

[wischeez]

bkn= broken cloud cover
014= probably 14,000 or 1400 feet

few= what it says
016= 16,000 or 1600 feet

My guess would be high level clouds. 16,000 broken, and a few at 14,000.

Look here: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/metar_decode_key.pdf

 

[skyking]

broken clouds at 1400 feet AGL (above ground level) Broken defined as sky coverage of more than 50%. This constitutes a ceiling for aviation purposes.
Few clouds at 1600 feet AGL

there will always be three digits for defining cloud elevations.
006 = 600 feet AGL
060 = 6,000 feet AGL
600 = 60,000 feet AGL
Note that those are as defined from ground stations. A pilot report will reference Mean Sea Level (MSL)

 

[wischeez]

Than 140 and 160 are 14,000 and 16,000?

 

[skyking]

yup