Aviation Weather Decoder
Paste any aviation weather report. Six formats, decoded as you type, free.
Accepts METARs, TAFs, PIREPs, AIREPs, SIGMETs, CWAs and winds aloft bulletins, ICAO codes like KDFW, airport names, or several at once.
Take this with you.
The WxDecoder app gives you live weather, maps, route weather, saved examples, and quizzes that make aviation weather stick.
Six formats, one box
You do not have to tell it what you pasted. The format is worked out from the text, so a PIREP and a SIGMET pasted together are split apart and each is read with the right parser.
That matters more than it sounds. A SIGMET can quote a time window that looks like a TAF period, and a PIREP can carry almost anything in its remarks, so the most specific header wins rather than the first thing that matches.
Paste several reports at once and each is decoded separately, with the raw text kept beside every explanation.
What each format gives you
METAR and SPECI: flight category with its reasons, every group, and the full remarks section. See the METAR decoder.
TAF: a period-by-period timeline with a category for each block, including military icing, turbulence and QNH groups. See the TAF decoder.
PIREP and AIREP: every tagged field, with turbulence and icing decoded to intensity, type and altitude band. The tagless AIREP form is read positionally.
SIGMET, AIRMET and CWA: the hazard, the area, the level band, the movement and whether it is intensifying, with the contractions expanded.
Winds aloft: an FB bulletin parsed by column, so each station\u2019s groups line up with the right altitude.
Why it never invents weather
The decode is deterministic. Parsers extract facts, a risk engine scores those facts, and the wording is built from templates. No part of the explanation is generated from a model that could describe weather the report does not contain.
The raw text stays visible next to every explanation, so you can always check the decode against the source rather than taking it on trust.
Where a group is not recognised, it is shown as unrecognised rather than guessed at, and logged so the parser improves.
A learning tool as well as a decoder
Every decoded group links to a page explaining what it means and what it changes for you, so the decoder doubles as a way to learn the formats rather than a way to avoid learning them.
The field guide teaches one field at a time, and the code reference answers one code at a time. The PIREP, SIGMET and military TAF pages cover a whole format at once.
Reports from outside the United States decode too, and two regions have their own pages: the UK METAR decoder and the BoM TAF decoder.
This is an education and situational awareness tool, not an official briefing source. Always get an official briefing before you fly.
Frequently asked questions
Which aviation weather formats does this decoder accept?
METARs and SPECIs, TAFs including military ones, PIREPs and AIREPs, SIGMETs, AIRMETs and Center Weather Advisories, and winds aloft FB bulletins. It works out which one you pasted from the text.
Do I have to say what format I am pasting?
No. The format is detected from the report itself, and several reports pasted together are split apart and each read with the right parser, even when the formats are mixed.
Does it use AI to write the explanations?
No. Parsers extract the facts and the wording is built from templates, so the decoder cannot describe weather the report does not contain. The raw text stays beside every explanation so you can check it.
Is this an official weather briefing?
No. It is an education and situational awareness tool. Always obtain an official preflight briefing from an approved source before you fly, and treat any risk wording here as suggestion rather than authorisation.
Is there an API?
Yes. GET /api/wx/KDFW returns the decoded observation and forecast as JSON, and POST /api/decode decodes a pasted report with the same engine the page uses.