Aviation Glossary - Area Forecasts

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Aviation Glossary :: Area Forecasts

Welcome to the Dauntless Aviation Glossary!

At Dauntless, our editorial staff maintains the web's largest unified glossary of aviation terms. This glossary is built from a combination of official, quasi-official, and proprietary sources (including original material that we develop oursselves). Uniquely, we often provide multiple definitions of a given term so that you can find that which best applies to you. In order to maximize your learning efficiency, this glossary (and similar ones for our international users) is incresingly fully integrated into our aviation learning apps, including our FAA written test prep and FAA practical test prep software and apps. If you like this glossary, you'll love them with their polished learning environments and world's best and clearest content (please do give them a try.).

Area Forecasts

An Area Forecast (FA) is a forecast in an abbreviated plain language of specified weather phenomena covering a flight information region (FIR) or other area designated by the meteorological authority. The Area Forecast (in conjunction with AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETs, CWAs, etc.), is used to determine forecast en route weather and to interpolate conditions at airports which do not have a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF). As such, it serves as a flight planning and pilot weather briefing aid for use by general aviation pilots, civil and military aviation operations and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) weather briefers.

Note: Hazardous weather (e.g., IFR, icing, turbulence, etc.) meeting AIRMET or SIGMET criteria are not forecast in the CONUS or Hawaii FAs. Valid AIRMETs and SIGMETs must be used in conjunction with the FA to determine hazardous weather information for the flight.

source: FAA/NOAA Aviation Weather Services (AC 00-45G)

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Disclaimer: While this glossary in most cases is likely to be highly accurate and useful, sometimes, for any number of editorial, transcription, technical, and other reasons, it might not be. Additionally, as somtimes you may have found yourself brought to this page through an automated term matching system, you may find definitions here that do not match the cotext or application in which you saw the original term. Please use your good judgement when using this resource.