Meteorology
Meteorology tests your ability to read Israeli and regional weather products and apply them to flight decisions. Expect METAR, TAF, trends, air masses, local winds and hazardous weather.
Products and codes
- METAR: wind, visibility, cloud, temperature/dewpoint, QNH, trend. TAF: valid period, wind, visibility, weather, cloud, temporary and becoming changes.
- Wind in METAR is true; tower and ATIS wind is normally magnetic. QNH is altimeter setting; QFE is height above a datum.
Israeli weather
- Mediterranean climate: wet, cool winters with convective showers and thunderstorms; hot, dry summers with a persistent marine layer and sea breeze.
- Sharav (khamsin): hot, dry, dusty southerly flow ahead of a cold front; visibility and turbulence deteriorate.
- Winter: hail, icing in cumulus, wind shear on approach; mountain wave east of the central ridge.
Worked example
LLBG 121220Z 27012KT 9999 SCT025 24/18 Q1013: day 12, 12:20 UTC, wind 270° true at 12 kt, visibility 10 km or more, scattered cloud at 2,500 ft, temperature 24°C, dewpoint 18°C, QNH 1013 hPa. The spread is 6°C, so the risk of low cloud or fog is low at this temperature.
Traps
Reading QNH as QFE; treating TEMPO as a permanent change; using true wind for runway crosswind; ignoring dust and haze in visibility planning; forgetting that a TAF is a forecast, not an observation.