Definition
A type of weather observing station, typically located at smaller airports, where trained personnel take and report a limited set of surface weather observations such as wind, visibility, sky condition, temperature, dew point, and altimeter setting. LAWRS observations supplement the national weather network but do not include the full range of elements reported by a fully certified weather station.
Plain English
A small airport weather station where trained staff hand-report basic weather like wind, visibility, clouds, and altimeter setting — but not the full set of details a major station would.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA acronym lists and in discussions of where official airport weather observations come from.
Derivation
‘Limited’ flags that the station reports only a partial set of weather elements compared to a primary observing station — not that the data is lower quality, just narrower in scope.
Why Pilots Care
Pilots use this distinction to judge how complete the available weather data is before deciding whether additional sources are needed for safe departure or arrival.
Intuition Check
Limited does not mean casual, unofficial, or unreliable here. It means the station is approved to report weather within a specific range of duties, rather than acting as a full weather office.
Example Sentence 1
The surface observation for that field comes from a LAWRS, so I checked a nearby airport for additional cloud layer information.
Example Sentence 2
LAWRS observations helped the pilot assess visibility at the non-towered airport during preflight planning.