If you’re looking for a basic, reliable weather app that provides NOAA metar data and forecasts, NOAA Aviation Live Sky Weather Aviation is a good bet. You won’t find any fancy graphics or visual effects here. What you will find is a well organized app which brings NOAA data to your fingertips in an easily accessible way. The app works smoothly and loads quickly. It is easy to find what you need. There is essentially no bloat or extraneous information.
Looking up an airport can be as simple as choosing from a country list. Then select the airport of interest from the nested list which then appears. You can also search by airport code, geographical coordinates, or city name. A visual search, where you zoom in on a geographical region and select an airport when these become visible, is another option.
Station details include comprehensive METAR data, a TAF forecast, and a map. Local time, altitude, and sunrise and sunset are also included. Forecasts include bulletin time, issue time, as well as validity intervals.
While you’re online, the app will auto-refresh data. Notifications appear when there is new information on stations in your favorites list. When offline, observations from the last time you were online will continue to be available.
A newsfeed provides access to regional aviation advisories and outlooks, complete with maps and stormfront graphics.
This app provides access to all weather and forecast data made available by the Aviation Weather Center and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). When data is not available, you’ll see a simple message. “No METAR (or TAF) available in the last three hours”. For TAF data, this comes with a link which allows you to view data from the closest airport with TAF values.
Differences Between Paid and Free App
For the free version of the weather app, ads are present on the bottom of the screen bar and as an occasional popup. If they become annoying, they can be removed for a very reasonable subscription. Another subscription is available to open up new features. Zoom, a handy METAR trainer, and the ability to order favorites are all under the premium plan.
