Plain English Meaning

METARs are short, standardized weather reports for airports, usually put out every hour, telling you what the weather is actually doing at that airport right now.

Full Definition

METARs are routine surface weather observations issued for airports, typically once per hour, in a standardized international format. Each report describes the actual weather conditions observed at the station at the time of the report, including wind, visibility, present weather, sky condition, temperature, dew point, and altimeter setting. Special non-routine reports issued between hourly observations when change significantly are called SPECIs, but they share the format.