5 November 2008
Today (November 5) sees the introduction of new format TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts) for the UK.
The main changes to the TAFs are:
– Introduction of 30 hour TAFs at some larger airports
– The addition of ‘day of the month’ information to time fields
– Inclusion of the ‘FM’ (for ‘from’) code
– Aerodromes will issue one type of TAF only, for either 9, 24 or 30 hour periods
The 30 hour TAFs are now available for Manchester, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
The addition of the day of the month will make will make the combined ‘date time’ fields look unfamiliar for a while. For instance, <b>0521/0606</b> would indicate a 9-hour TAF from 2100 hours on the 5th of the month to 0600 the following morning (the 6th of the month).
Likewise, BECMG fields will have the new date and time formats, as will TEMPO fields. The newly introduced FM field will be able to give a full time: <b>FM 051230</b> means ‘FROM 1230 on the 5th of the month’. (The FM code has not been used in the UK in the past, but has been part of the official TAF format for some time, and has been used by other states.)
See the current (November 2008) issue of <b><i>FLYER</i></b> – which is still on the newsstands – for Irv Lee’s feature on the new format TAFs.
For full details, refer to the AIC at <a href=’http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/current/aic/yellow/EG_Circ_2008_Y_047_en.pdf’ target=’_blank’>AIC 47/2008 (Yellow 266)</a>.
<table width=”90%” align=”center”><tr><td style=”background-color:silver; padding:4px”>
The latest version of CAP746 – Meteorological Observations at Aerodromes – is also published today. Read it at <a href=’http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP746.PDF’ target=’_blank’>www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP746.PDF</a>
</td></tr></table>
