Aviation codes

[johnholmes]

TAF=Terminal Area Forecast,

in Civil aviation they are usually issued every 3 hours and are valid for 9 hours,

military may be fore differing time periods.

Major civil airports also have either an 18 or 24 hour forecast issued, usually 4x daily.

METAR is the weather report for an airfield, military or civil. Most do them every 30 minutes, routine reports, at H+20 and H+50.

The decodes are below

TAF

The main Met office site for aviation is here but you will have to enrol, this is free and will allow you to see all the METARS and TAFs along with their decode, here

http://secure.metoffice.com/aviation/index.jsp

and some other sites recommended by other posters on Net Weather

http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/GB_cc.html

http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/metars/

http://euro.wx.propilots.net/

most of the sites listed will give much more than METARS or TAFS.