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Information in a Metar
billo
Topic Author
billo created the topic: Information in a Metar
VFR study guide 2.6.8 Item 10 states "RMK RF02/004.0" Decoded means 2mm of rain 10min prior to report and 4mm since 9.00 local time.
How? Where did the times come from and what does RMK stand for??
Richard replied the topic: Re: Information in a Metar
Hi Billo,
The RMK stands for "Remark" and is defined in AIP GEN 2.2 - 40. A remark is simply some additional information relevant to the report.
In this case, the remarks section contains the comment regarding rainfall (RF) which, as you corectly interpreted, means there was 2mm of rain in the last 10 minutes before the report was issued and 4mm since 9am local time at the airport for which the report was issued.
The time of the report is read from the date/time group of the METAR. In the example you stated, the report is a METAR which has been issued for YBBN (Brisbane) and the METAR was issued at 0300Z (0300 UTC or 1300 EST). We now know there was 2 mm of rain since 12:50pm and 4mm since 9am in Brisbane.
