Clouds are visible masses of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. They can take on variety of shapes, sizes, and colors depending on factors such as altitude, temperature, and humidity. They provide precipitation in the form of rain or snow.

Clouds play an important role in regulating the Earth`s climate by reflecting sunlight and trapping heat. Clouds can be classified into different typers based on their altitude and appearance, including cumulonimbus,cumulus, stratus,  nimbostratus, altostratus, altocumulus,cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus etc.


How to Report Clouds in Metar?


  • First individual cloud layer can be reported in METAR as: FEW, SCT and BKN.
  • Order of reporting different cloud layers in the group NsNsNshshshs shall be:
  • Height of the base of cloud layers is reported in steps of: 100ft (30 meters) up to 10000ft (3000 meters) and 1000ft (300 meters) above 10000ft (3000 meters)
  • Only these significant convective clouds are reported by mentioning its type to the cloud group without space: CB & TCU.