How To Read Winds Aloft

I ve been using foreflight which handily provides winds and temperatures aloft for every airfield in my flight plan but when i don t have use of foreflight i m not sure where to turn.

How to read winds aloft. A four digit group shows wind direction in reference to true north and wind speed. The first two digits give direction in tens of degrees and the second two digits are the wind speed in knots. Jax winds aloft report for 18 000ft 781245 say what. Sometimes as a pilot i feel like a medical coder. The angle of the barb vector shows the direction the wind is blowing with the barbed end pointing to where the wind comes from and the arrow pointing to where the wind is going.

The product header includes the date and time observations were collected the forecast valid date and time and the time period during which the forecast is to be used. How to find winds aloft. I ve tried searching adds and found myself on the forecast wind temp data page but the only reporting wind barb near me is jacksonville kjax. The brighter colors are the more moisture. Louis stl forecast for 3 000 ft.

If forecast speed is less than 5 knots the coded group is 9900 which means light and variable. Winds greater than 200 knots are reported as 199 knots. The winds aloft chart provides information about cloud cover temperature and wind speed and direction at various altitudes plus how it s changing over time. How the heck do i decode that. May 14 2017 by sarah fritts.

Wind direction is indicated in tens of degrees two digits with reference to true north and wind speed is given in knots two digits. Or better yet my wife who codes php web based programming language for a living and tries to explain it all to me. To convert wind directions reported greater than 360 subtract a 5 from the first number to determine wind direction and add 100 to the wind group. Winds and temps aloft forecast fb format 1. Winds are light and variable temperature 12 c.

To read wind barbs align the wind barb so north is pointing straight up and look at the barb vector which should have an arrow point on one end and feathers or barbs on the other. 7508 250º at 108 knots. 7599 250º at 199 than 200kts. Winds are forecasted true indicated in tens of degrees two digits with reference to true north and wind speed is given in knots two digits 2022.