Documents

Users Guide

To view the User's Guide click here (Version 7.0, Feb 2024)
NOTE: Please check Advisories for updates that have not made it into the Users Guide.

WIFS API

Click here for more information and links to the new Application Programming Interface (API).

WIFS Products

WIFS hosts the following aviation weather products intended for international flight planning and documentation in accordance with ICAO Annex 3, Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation.

WAFS Grids (GRIB2)

Gridded model forecasts in General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary Form Edition 2 (GRIB2) format. Forecasts of the following fields are available every 3 hours from forecast hours 6 through 36 on two grid reoslutions: 1.25x1.25 degree and 0.25x0.25 degree::

• Standard 1.25x1.25 degree grids
  • temperature at 17 pressure levels (100 mb, 125 mb, 150 mb, 175 mb, 200 mb, 225 mb, 250 mb, 275 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb, 450 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb, 850 mb)
  • geopotential height at 17 pressure levels (100 mb, 125 mb, 150 mb, 175 mb, 200 mb, 225 mb, 250 mb, 275 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb, 450 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb, 850 mb)
  • U/V wind components at 17 pressure levels (100 mb, 125 mb, 150 mb, 175 mb, 200 mb, 225 mb, 250 mb, 275 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb, 450 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb, 850 mb)
  • relative humidity at 5 pressure levels (500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb and 850 mb)
  • maximum U/V wind components
  • height of maximum wind
  • height of tropopause
  • temperature at the tropopause
• Aviation 1.25x1.25 degree grids - blended GFS/UKMET
  • clear air turbulence probability (average and maximum) at 6 pressure levels (150 mb, 200 mb, 250 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb)
  • in-cloud turbulence probability (average and maximum) at 6 pressure levels (300 mb, 400 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, and 700 mb)
  • icing probability (average and maximum) at 6 reference pressure levels (300 mb, 400 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, and 800 mb)
  • Horizontal Extent of Cumulonimbus for the entire atmospheric column
  • Height of the Cumulonimbus Base
  • Height of the Cumulonimbus Top
• Aviation 0.25x0.25 degree grids - blended GFS/UKMET - new in November 2020
  • turbulence (eddy dissipation rate) values 0 to 1 at 9 pressure levels: 148 mb, 197 mb, 250 mb, 301 mb, 344 mb, 393 mb, 506 mb, 595 mb, 697 mb
  • icing severity values are categories 0 to 4: none, trace, light, moderate, severe; at 6 pressure levels: 301 mb, 393 mb, 506 mb, 595 mb, 697 mb, 812 mb
  • Horizontal Extent of Cumulonimbus for the entire atmospheric column
  • Height of the Cumulonimbus Base
  • Height of the Cumulonimbus Top

The new 0.25x0.25 degree grids are tiled into 8 regions:

1. Europe - 30-90N, 30W-60E
2. Africa - 60S-30N, 30W-60E
3. central Asia - 0-60N, 60E-150W
4. Australia - 60S-0, 60E-150W
5. North America - 15-90N, 150W-30W
6. South America - 60S-15N, 150W-30W
7. Siberia - 60-90N, 60E-150W
8. Antarctica - 90-60S, 180W-180E

Significant Weather (SIGWX) BUFR and PNG Charts

Upper-air aviation charts that include jet stream locations, clear air turbulence, thunderstorm, and tropopause height. These are produced by forecasters at WAFC Washington and WAFC London.

SIGWX BUFR WMO Headers

SIGWX PNG WMO Headers

Volcanic Ash and Tropical Cyclone Advisories (PNG)

Graphics of volcanic ash produced by the nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers across the world. They are transmitted as PNG graphics. The same applies for tropical cyclone advisories even though at this time only advisories from Japan are provided.

Operational Meteorology (OPMET) Messages

• Traditional Alphanumeric Coding (TAC)
  

  Alphanumeric messages consisting of routine aviation weather reports (METAR and SPECI), terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs), en-route hazardous weather warnings of significant meteorological information (SIGMETs), pilot reports (PIREP), volcanic ash advisory messages (VAA) messages, and tropical cyclone advisory (TCA) messages.

• International Weather XML Exchange Format (IWXXM)
  

  Traditional OPMET products including METAR/SPECI, TAF, SIGMET, VAA and TCA are now being encoded in IWXXM format and being made available in a product by product basis and assembled into a compressed Unix tar file. Most products are in the latest available version (3.0). Here is a list of the WMO header prefix used by each product:

WIFS Directory Structure

• ADMIN_MSGS
  

  Administrative messages which announce new products, late products, system issues, etc.

• BUFR
  

  BUFR encoded products

  • SIGWX
    

    SigWx data

    • KWBC
      

      US generated BUFR data

    • EGRR
      

      UK generated BUFR data (provided as backup for SADIS users)

• GRIB2
  

  GRIB2 encoded gridded data

  • KWBC
    

    US generated grids

    • *.grib2
      

      Wind/Temp grids at 1.25 deg.

    • cat, cb, ice
      

      Blended viation hazard grids for clear air turbulence (CAT), cumulonimbus height and extent, and icing potential. These are legacy 1.25 deg grids.

      • *.grib2
        

        Hazard grids at 1.25 deg.

    • cb_0.25, ice_0.25, turb_0.25
      

      Blended viation hazard grids for cumulonimbus height and extent, icing severity, and turbulence severity (EDR). These are new 0.25 deg grids.

      • *.grib2
        

        Global hazard grids at 0.25 deg.

      • *regX.grib2
        

        Regional hazard grids at 0.25 deg. See regional tile locations above

  • EGRR
    

    UK generated grids (provided as backup for SADIS users)

    • *.grib2
      

      Wind/Temp grids at 1.25 deg.

    • T+06, T+09, T+12,...
      

      Wind/Temp grids at 1.25 deg broken down by hour (SADIS convention)

    • CAT, CB, ICE
      

      Blended viation hazard grids for clear air turbulence (CAT), cumulonimbus height and extent, and icing potential. These are legacy 1.25 deg grids.

      • *.grib2
        

        Hazard grids at 1.25 deg.

      • T+06, T+09, T+12,...
        

        Hazard grids at 1.25 deg broken down by hour (SADIS convention)

    • CB_0.25, ICE_0.25, TURB_0.25
      

      Blended viation hazard grids for cumulonimbus height and extent, icing severity, and turbulence severity (EDR). These are new 0.25 deg grids.

      • *.grib2
        

        Hazard grids at 0.25 deg.

      • T+06, T+09, T+12,...
        

        Hazard grids at 0.25 deg broken down by hour (SADIS convention)

• IWXXM
  

  IWXXM OPMET data, all files gzip compressed

  • 5MINUTE
    

    IWXXM OPMET data - 5 minute files, tar file of minute files - 36 hours

  • HOURLY
    

    IWXXM OPMET data - hourly files, tar file of twelve 5 minute files - 36 hours

  • MINUTE
    

    IWXXM OPMET data - minute files, tar file of IWXXM products - 36 hours

  • *.tgz
    

    IWXXM OPMET data - rolling files, tar file of minute files (30MIN, 60MIN, LAST HOUR use 5 min files)

• OPMET-HOURLY
  

  TAC OPMET data - hourly files - 36 hours

• OPMET-MINUTE
  

  TAC OPMET data - minute files - 36 hours

• OPMET-ROLLING
  

  TAC OPMET data - rolling files - last minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and last hour

• PNG
  

  PNG charts

  • SIGWX
    

    SigWx charts

    • KWBC
      

      US generated SigWx charts

    • EGRR
      

      UK generated SigWx charts (provided as backup for SADIS users)

  • TROP
    

    Tropical cyclone advisory charts

  • VOLC
    

    Volcanic ash advisory charts

Support

WIFS is available for use 24x7. Between the hours of 7:00 am and 3:00 pm Central Time, Monday through Friday, live WIFS technical support is provided by the AWC. To contact AWC WIFS technical support, use the following email address and phone number.

Open a help desk ticket

Phone: +1 (877) 280-2811

Click here to view frequently asked questions.

If a message is sent to the WIFS Help Desk outside of normal hours, users can generally expect a response within three business days. If users require immediate help outside of WIFS Help Desk hours they should contact the NWS Telecommunications Operations Center Help Desk at +1(301) 713-0902.

WIFS Troubleshooting

1. To test your internet connection, try the following URL in a browser: "https://aviationweather.gov". If the browser opens the page, you have a working internet connection. If it is not, contact your system administrator or your Internet Service Provider for assistance.
2. If you don't know where this file is or how to access it, contact the WAFS Workstation Support Team (reference the WIFS Vendor POC Information list below).
3. In your browser type in the following URL: https://aviationweather.gov/wifs/data. Click on the appropriate category and find the data you are looking for. Take note of the file name with the latest date/time.
4. The National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG) Helpdesk phone number is (301) 713-0902.

WIFS Vendor POC Information

Advisories

NWS/TOC and NCEP/AWC Notices

• Advisories

• Technical Implementation Notices

Advisories

WIFS Status