METAR
In the aviation world, they don't use AM/PM times. Instead, all times are assumed to be AM unless they're labeled NOTAM.
In the aviation world, they don't use AM/PM times. Instead, all times are assumed to be AM unless they're labeled NOTAM.
In aviation, the METAR (Meteorological Aerodrome Report) is used to give pilots a brief overview of the current meteorological conditions at an airport or other suitably equipped location. The METAR follows a specific structure and makes heavy usage of abbreviations, which makes it hard to read for anyone not familiar with it. The comic makes fun of that by assuming meanings of the METAR words based on what non-aviation people might think they mean. The METAR in the comic is fairly alarming, describing dangerously fast winds, a possible tornado, freezing volcanic ash (in New York!), lightning, and impossibly high atmospheric pressure.
Code Real meaning Comic text Meaning according to the comic METAR Type: Meteorological Aerodrome Report "METER" (usually misspelled) The comic assumes that this is just a spelling error and it should be "meter" (or, indeed, "metre"). KNYC Station ID: 4 character identifier; for an airport, this would be the ICAO code. In this instance the identifier represents the automated weather station at Belvedere Castle in Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. Airport, weather and radio station call signs share a common heritage. Station ID "Station ID", which is actually correct, although people unfamiliar with METAR-reporting stations could presume that this is a radio or TV broadcaster's call sign. Among radio stations, KNYC is not a current call sign (though WNYC is, and indeed serves New York City), while KNYC-TV is a television station based in Brooklyn. 251600Z Time of observation: 25th day of the month at 4 PM UTC. Z is not part of the time, but simply global shorthand for "Zulu" time, i.e. UTC. Normally most stations would report at a particular time every hour, in this particular case either 15:51 or 16:51 would apply, but more frequent reports are made during unusual and rapidly changing weather events (as may be the situation, in this case). Time (25:16:002) Misreading the "25" as the hour instead of the day, pushing the trailing zeros into seconds which METAR doesn't use, and "Z" as a 2 on the end of seconds, all resulting in a nonsensical time. 18035G45KT Wind direction and speed: Wind direction 180° (directly from the south, degrees based on 0°=true north), speed 35 knots, gusting to 45 knots. This is quite stormy weather. Wind speed has been 18,035 knots for a good 45 minutes now Instead of interpreting the first 5 digits as direction and speed, it is assumed that it is one big number and the G45 stands for the time span in which this was observed with "G" standing for "good". 18,035 knots is an unrealistically high wind speed, faster than orbital velocity; the jet stream typically contains the highest winds on Earth, and may reach about 250 knots. 6SM 6 statute miles of visibility, meaning that objects can be seen clearly up to 6 miles away. This indicates clear enough weather to fly without instruments; the value has a max range of 10SM. Observer is a size 6 small The comic interprets "6SM" to humorously mean a "Size 6 Small". VCFCFZVA In the vicinity (VC): funnel cloud (FC) and freezing (FZ) volcanic ash (VA). This sounds somewhat unusual for New York City.[citation needed] Sorry, the station cat walked on the keyboard A riff on the repeated letters which give off the impression the string is constructed by random keypresses on the keyboard, as exemplified by a cat on the keyboard. There is a long history of this problem, as well as attempted solutions. This string may or may not actually look like the pattern of characters that a walking cat could produce (and be reliably detected). All the letters are in a cluster at the lower left of the (QWERTY) keyboard, with some adjacently paired characters perhaps indicative of stepping on multiple keys and other neighbouring keys having been stepped over, not uncommon of an oblivious feline wandering across your desk. But the repeated cluster of "CFCF", and other implied paw-press events, seem less likely to emerge even from a rapid quadrupedal gait. A more casual stroll would likely also create single-character duplications, unless the keyboard repeat delay was set unnaturally high. It could, though, come from a repeated pawing at the keyboard.
+BLUP Heavy (+) blowing (BL) unknown precipitation (UP) Weird noise the sky made earlier Riffing on the fact that it looks like an onomatopoetic word NOSIG No significant change is expected to the reported conditions within the next 2 hours Observer has no significant other :( The comic assumes that the transmitter of the METAR report wants the receivers to know that they do not have a significant other, which the comic finds sad. The observer could be trying to abuse the METAR report as a dating platform. LTG OHD Lightning overhead We overheard someone saying there was lightning OHD is interpreted as "overheard" instead of "overhead", indicating that they did not observe it themselves and instead just overheard people talking about it. A3808 Altimeter setting: the (calculated) air pressure corresponding to mean sea level at the airport is 38.08 inches of mercury (inHg) ("A" is for inHg, used primarily in USA, Canada and Japan; "Q" would indicate a value in hPa). The value of 38.08 is extremely high: the standard atmospheric pressure used in aviation is 29.92 inHg, and the highest recorded surface pressure on Earth was 32.01 inHg. This is used to adjust the altimeter in the aircraft to the local air pressure, instead of using the standard setting used in higher air spaces. Hey look, an Airbus A380-800! The comic says that the observer saw an Airbus A380-800, a very large passenger plane. Note: The ICAO aircraft type code for the Airbus A380-800 is A388 and not A3808. RMK Beginning of the section with remarks Remarkable! Remarkable. Likely a comment about the A380 (as stated previously, it is quite large). AO2 The weather station is automated (A) and has a precipitation discriminator (O2), which can tell the difference between liquid and frozen precipitation. Fanfic archive equipped with a precipitation sensor A reference to the fanfic site Archive of Our Own, often abbreviated as AO3 (Archive of Our Own, or "AOOO"). It's nonsensical to describe this site as having a precipitation discriminator.[citation needed] SLP130= Sea-level pressure is 1013.0 hPa (approx. 29.91 inHg). The equals sign signifies the end of the METAR. Observer got sleepy around 1:30 "SLP" interpreted as abbreviation for sleepy, the numbers as a time, and the = sign as "around" (maybe confused with ≈) NOTAM (title text) Not part of a METAR report, but instead another aviation abbreviation. It stands for Notice to Air Missions (previously Notice to Airmen). All times are assumed to be AM unless they're labeled NOTAM. Parsed as "not A.M.", indicating that a given time is to be interpreted as P.M. While AM and PM are indeed not used in aviation, as the comic says, they use a 24-hour clock system, not an "A.M.-by-default" 12-hour clock system.