While a fact that is sometimes lost, the primary reason for the weather stations at the airports is to support local aviation needs and not necessarily to tell the general public what the weather is or how much it rained! As such, two of the variables collected by the automated station are horizontal visibility and cloud ceiling heights. These variables are combined into a flight rules rubric that governs aviation activity with the most relaxed rules happening with VFR (Visual Flight Rules). VFR conditions include ceilings above at least three thousand feet and at least five miles of horizontal visibility. The featured chart summarizes the flight rules for Des Moines this march with each box representing the hourly METAR report from the site. This infographic nicely summarizes when ceiling and/or visibility conditions were restrictive.

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Tags:   aviation