A METAR observation is prepared how often?

• A. Daily
• B. Hourly
• C. At unscheduled intervals
• D. As the weather changes

Answer: (B)

The cadence of routine aviation weather reporting is hourly. METARs are prepared at hourly intervals, on the hour, at airports around the world. This creates a consistent, up-to-date snapshot of conditions—wind, visibility, weather phenomena, sky cover, temperature, dew point, and pressure—for the most recent hour. The regular one-hour cycle helps pilots and air traffic control compare conditions over time and align with other forecast products that are issued on fixed schedules. If weather changes significantly between hourly observations, a special report can be issued to alert users to the new conditions, but the standard routine METAR remains an hourly observation. Daily or unscheduled interval reporting would lack the timely consistency that METARs are designed to provide, and reporting only as weather changes would replace the routine cadence with frequent, potentially uneven updates.