METAR Generator
Generate a random METAR, try to read it, then decode it to check yourself.
Every generated report is valid: it is run through the same parser that reads real METARs, so nothing here teaches a format that does not exist.
Take this with you.
The WxDecoder app gives you live weather, maps, route weather, saved examples, and quizzes that make aviation weather stick.
How to practise with the METAR generator
Press Generate and read the report before you decode it. Say the wind, the visibility, the ceiling and the flight category out loud, then press Decode and see how you did.
The generator deliberately produces a spread of days. Roughly half are quiet, most of the rest are marginal with rain or a lowering deck, and a few are low enough to be instrument conditions or fog with a vertical visibility instead of a cloud layer.
That spread matters. Practising only on clear days teaches you to skim, and the reports that need reading carefully are the ones where the numbers are close to a threshold.
What to look for first
Find the ceiling before anything else. Only broken, overcast and vertical visibility layers count. Few and scattered never do, however low they sit.
Then take the worse of the ceiling and the visibility, because that is what decides the flight category. A field with a 5000 foot ceiling and one mile visibility is IFR on the visibility alone.
If you want the thresholds in front of you while you practise, the flight categories page has all four, and the abbreviations list covers every code the generator can produce.
Why the reports are always valid
A practice tool that emitted a malformed report would teach the wrong format, which is worse than not existing. So the generators are covered by a test that builds hundreds of reports from fixed seeds and pushes each one through the real parser.
The test fails if any group comes back unrecognised, or if a value does not survive the round trip. Practise here and you are practising on reports the decoder agrees are well formed.
When you want the real thing instead, the METAR decoder takes live reports and airport codes, and the aviation weather quiz mixes all three formats.
Frequently asked questions
Are the generated METARs realistic?
They are structurally valid and use realistic value ranges, with a deliberate spread from clear days through marginal conditions to fog. They are not real observations, so do not use them for anything but practice.
Can I get the same report twice?
Each press uses a fresh seed, so repeated presses give different reports. The underlying generator is deterministic for a given seed, which is how the test suite reproduces any failing case.
How do I check my answer?
Press Decode. The report is read by the same engine that handles live weather, so you get the flight category with its reasons plus a group-by-group explanation to compare against your own reading.
Does it generate remarks?
Yes, a simple remarks section with the automated station flag and sometimes sea-level pressure or a pressure tendency group. Full remark practice is better done on real reports through the METAR decoder.