Article: These reports are often free and available even when you're not operating a plane. Check with your government's aviation office or national weather service online. The Aviation Weather Center in the U.S., for instance, offers reports. Access reports at https://www.aviationweather.gov/metar. To request a report from the weather center, select a location. You can also choose a time period if you wish to access a past report. If you're looking at a METAR report, you will see it listed at the beginning. There are other types of reports as well. Each type of report conveys different information. Distinguish between these types of reports to get weather details you need. METAR reports are routine hourly reports. A new METAR report is issued at the end of each hour. SPECI indicates a special, unscheduled report. SPECI reports usually happen for special conditions like low visibility and thunderstorms. TAF means terminal aerodrome forecast. TAFs are similar to METARs but less common and used to provide a forecast for a general area. The ID tag will look something like KAFF. K represents a location in the US. The letters after it tell you which station the report came from. Every country and station has its own identifying code given out by the World Meteorlogical Organization. KAFF, for instance, represents the Air Force Academy in Colorado. EGLL is the code for London Heathrow. E represents the UK, while GLL stands for Heathrow Airport. RJAA represents Tokyo Narita Airport. Look for a series of 6 numbers followed by a Z, such as 212355Z. The first pair of numbers stands for the day of the month. The rest of the code represents the time in Zulu, also called Universal or Greenwich Mean Time. Note that the report doesn't include information about the month or year it was issued. For example, in 212355Z, 21 shows you that the report came on the 21st day of the month. It happened at 2355Z Zulu, which would be 1755, or 11:55 AM, in Colorado Springs. In the example, the modifier is indicated by COR. If it is present, the modifier information is always listed after the time and date. You can tell it apart from the rest of the report by how short it is. It also doesn't have any numbers in it, unlike the codes before and after it. AUTO means the report came from an automated station. COR tells you that someone corrected the initial report. A manual observer changed something the automated station got wrong. You won't see a modifier for reports issued by a person. If no one is on duty at the station, then you may start seeing automated reports.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Obtain a METAR report from an airport aviation center. Use the initial code letters to identify the type of report. Note the station identifier after the report type. Read the next numbers to find the report's date and time. Look for a short phrase explaining how the report was modified.