Definition
A continuous, recorded weather and aeronautical information broadcast formerly transmitted over selected low-frequency (190–535 kHz) non-directional beacons (NDBs) and some VOR stations. The recording included route-oriented weather forecasts, current conditions, pilot reports, and notices, and could be received in flight by tuning the navigation receiver to the broadcasting station. The TWEB service has been discontinued in the United States, but the term still appears in older FAA publications and reference material.
Plain English
A pre-recorded weather report that pilots used to listen to by tuning into certain navigation radio stations. It played on a loop and gave weather along common flight routes. The service no longer runs, but the name still shows up in handbooks.
Context Anchor
Seen in older FAA weather-information discussions and in references to weather broadcasts available through aviation radio facilities.
Derivation
Transcribed here means recorded onto tape or another medium for repeated playback, from the Latin transcribere, to write across or copy over. The broadcast was literally a recorded message played continuously, rather than a live transmission.
Why Pilots Care
Although TWEB is no longer in service, it appears in current FAA handbooks and test material. Knowing what it was prevents confusion when reading older guidance and helps make sense of how in-flight weather information evolved into today's systems like HIWAS (also discontinued), Flight Service briefings, and datalink weather.
Intuition Check
Do not read “broadcast” here as a two-way call with a weather specialist. A TWEB is recorded information sent out for pilots to listen to; the pilot does not talk back to it.
Example Sentence 1
Older instrument textbooks list the TWEB as one option for getting weather in flight, but pilots today use Flight Service or onboard datalink instead.
Example Sentence 2
Before these services ended, transcribed weather broadcasts gave pilots a steady stream of METARs and forecasts on selected frequencies.