Current Weather and Wind Station Data

The Current Weather Conditions layer is created from hourly METAR and buoy data provided from NOAA. A typical METeorological Aerodrome Report (METAR), also known as an aviation routine weather report, contains several weather variables for each land-based station location, including: temperature dew point wind speed gust and direction precipitation cloud cover and heights visibility barometric pressure A METAR may also contain information on precipitation amounts, lightning, and other information that would be of interest to pilots or meteorologists such as a PIlot REPort (PIREP). In addition, a short period textual forecast called a TREND may be added at the end of the METAR, likely covering changes in weather conditions for two hours following the observation. This layer also includes information from moored weather buoys from the National Data Buoy Center. A typical buoy reading contains data for: air temperature water temperature dew point wind speed and direction wave speed and direction visibility tide height barometric pressure Source METAR Stations: https://aviationweather.gov/data/cache/metars.cache.csv, available from Data API page. Ocean BUOYS: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/latest_obs/latest_obs.txt Update Frequency Check for updates every 5 minutes using the Aggregated Live Feeds methodology Area Covered World Default Symbology The default symbology uses the Beaufort Scale to display wind speed and direction over land and ocean surfaces. However, it is easy to customize the display to a variety of single and multi-variate map displays by using the Change Style function in ArcGIS Online or in Desktop. Alternate Symbology Aviation focused Feature Layer item, Current Weather Station Data by Flight Category, that symbolizes on the Flight Category field. What can you do with this layer? The layer can also be added to the “Latest” layer of any of the National Weather Service forecast maps to provide complete US gridded data with individual point locations. Create a contoured weather map using spatial interpolation in ArcGIS Online. Revisions Apr 2, 2026: Added field Descriptions and Variable Types. Dec 21, 2023: Updated METAR links in this item description. Aug 7, 2023: Update to 'Buoy' layer expanding 'station_id' field from 5 characters to 7 in response to upcoming Change Notice. Aug 12, 2022: Added field 'Flight Category' to Stations Layer. Enhanced update workflow to improve stability and update frequency. This map is provided for informational purposes and is not monitored 24/7 for accuracy and currency. If you would like to be alerted to potential issues or simply see when this Service will update next, please visit our Live Feed Status Page!