About Weathermeister

What is Weathermeister?
You're probably already familiar with the cryptic format of the standard issue METAR, TAF and numerous other weather reports. On one hand, it's understandable that this information would be transmitted in a very compact, efficient format. To that end, an encoded report is certainly...well..."efficient." But on the other hand, think about the real purpose of this information – to inform pilots and help them envision the conditions they'll be facing on any given flight. Why should we have to work so hard to decipher weather information that is so critical to flight safety?!

Let's look at some examples. Here's a sample of what DUATS considers a "plain language" decoded METAR:

DUATS METAR

That's all well and good...it reads pretty easily...but it takes half an hour just to read the whole thing. And that's just one report for one location! Let's compare that to what you get with Weathermeister:

Weathermeister METARs

With color-coding and a very intuitive layout, you can immediately see the important data. Red and orange – ok, there's some IMC out there. Blue in the wind column – ok, it's blowing pretty good. And consider the fact that Weathermeister just gave you 100 miles of data in the same space that DUATS gave you a single point! On Weathermeister, with just a quick glance you can get a very clear sense of the conditions.

A Brief History...
This site was originally created by Dan Checkoway, a pilot and software engineer. It's the result of more than a decade of development and refinement. It started out as a simple presentation of decoded METARs, but it has evolved dramatically from there. Over time, the level of sophisitication of the decoding logic has transformed the way pilots get their weather briefings. Numerous competitors have popped up over the years, but they are imitators at best...Weathermeister continues to blaze the trail, giving pilots what they want – how they want it.

I Have to Pay For This?
First of all, we should mention that everybody is welcome to use the "free" section of this site. If you want premium features, however, you're gonna have to cough up some bucks. Rest assured the monthly fee is very reasonable (unlike most other things in aviation...), and you definitely get what you pay for here. Note: the "free" section of this site will be maintained but will be limited, and it will no longer be enhanced. The free section will also display ads. New features and functionality and an ad-free environment will be made available only to paying subscribers.

What Do I Get For My Money?
In a nutshell, convenience. With most aviation weather services, you need to "poke around" from page to page in order to view all the info you're looking for. Even then, the way the information is presented isn't always the most intuitive. Weathermeister offers what is arguably the simplest, most easy to interpret weather interface available. When you subscribe to Weathermeister, here are some of the features you'll be able to take advantage of:

How Much Does it Cost?
Well, that just depends on how much you need. Below is a breakdown of the prices of the various subscription plans. You can save money by taking advantage of an annual subscription (instead of "month to month"), but that's purely your choice.

  Basic Premium Corporate
Payment Plans:
(save $9.45/year)
(save $13.45/year)
contact us
for pricing
Pilot Profiles 1 1 3 +
Aircraft Profiles 1 3 12 +
Custom Routes 3 10 25 +
Custom Areas 4 10 25 +
Briefings/Day 150 300 unlimited
METARs Yes Yes Yes
TAFs Yes Yes Yes
PIREPs Yes Yes Yes
NOTAMs Yes Yes Yes
NWS Forecasting Yes Yes Yes
Flight Optimizer Yes Yes Yes
TFR Notifications No Yes Yes
Weather by Email No Yes Yes
Logshare.com Yes Yes Yes