For some time, all countries, including recently the United States and Canada have been using the new International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) weather codes and formats. In this format, routine hourly weather reports are known as METARs, and terminal forecasts are called TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts) There are significant differences in these new formats including the sequence of information and many abbreviations.

METAR/TAF and the accompanying booklet goes over these codes, explaining what each symbol and symbol group means, how areas of information are spaced, how special remarks are indicated within a particular report or forecast, and then shows how the sky and weather conditions actually appear as they are described by particular forecasts or reports.